Panthers top Caps in OT, tie series at 2

PANTHERS 3 CAPITALS 2

WASHINGTON — Sam Reinhart tied it late in regulation, Carter Verhaeghe scored his second of the game in overtime and the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Panthers beat the Capitals, 3-2, in Game 4 Monday night, tying the firstround series.

Verhaeghe scored 4:57 into overtime to keep the NHL’s best regular-season team from getting pushed to the brink of elimination much earlier in the playoffs than expected.

It’s a bestof-three series now with Game

5 Wednesday night at Florida.

The Panthers were just over two minutes away from facing the prospect of getting knocked out at home. Then, with goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky pulled for an extra attacker, Reinhart collected a loose puck after it bounced off Capitals forward Garnet Hathaway and beat Ilya Samsonov with 2:04 remaining in the third period.

Given the combination of nerves and playoff inexperience that contributed to Florida’s struggles in the series, Reinhart’s goal may turn out to be the one that saves its season.

Before that point, the Panthers outshot the Capitals by a wide margin, but again were unable to finish. They went 0 for 4 on the power play to make it 0 for 13 in the series and couldn’t put the puck in the net at 5 on 5.

Before Reinhart scored 6 on 5, their only other goal came 4 on 4, when Carter Verhaeghe finished a 2 on 1 rush late in the first.

Bobrovsky stopped 14 of 16 shots. T.J. Oshie scored on the power play in the first, and Evgeny Kuznetsov put Washington ahead on a breakaway goal midway through the third.

These teams have now traded victories. The Capitals have not won consecutive playoff games since 2019.

Florida is trying to break the franchise’s playoff series losing streak that dates to 1996, when the team reached the Stanley Cup finals.