Capitals topple top seed Panthers
T.J. Oshie scored the goahead goal midway through the third period, Vitek Vanecek stopped 30 shots and the Washington Capitals rallied past the topseeded Florida Panthers 4-2 in the opener of their Eastern Conference first-round series Tuesday night in Sunrise, Fla.
Tom Wilson, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Lars Eller also scored for Washington, which trailed 2-1 going into the third period. Teams had been 0-39-1 against Florida in the regular season when trailing after 40 minutes, 0-22-0 when doing so on the Panthers' home ice.
The Capitals must have ignored those numbers. Kuznetsov tied the score after a Florida turnover with 11:46 left, then Oshie got behind the defense and tapped a pass by Sergei Bobrovsky for what became the winner 2:23 later.
Eller wrapped it up with an empty-netter with 49 seconds left.
Claude Giroux and Sam Bennett scored for Florida, which has not won the opening game of a postseason series since 1997. Bobrovsky stopped 34 shots for the Panthers, the Presidents' Trophy winners after an NHL-best 122 points in the regular season — and saw the home-ice advantage slip away in their playoff opener.
Game 2 is Thursday, back in Florida.
ONE-GAME SUSPENSION FOR TORONTO'S CLIFFORD >> Toronto Maple Leafs forward Kyle Clifford was given a one-game suspension for a boarding incident in Toronto's playoff-opening win over the Tampa Bay Lightning. The NHL's department of player safety issued the suspension on Tuesday following a hearing with Clifford. It described Monday's incident as a forceful hit to a defenseless player who is no longer in possession of the puck. Clifford was assessed a major penalty for boarding and a game misconduct 6:59 into Game 1 of the first-round series for a hit on Ross Colton. The Tampa forward went face-first into the glass, but he escaped serious injury. “He's been around the game a long time and has played that way a long time,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said of Clifford. “He paid for it in that moment. We paid for it as a team.” The Maple Leafs won Game 1 5-0 over the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions. Clifford will miss Game 2 today.