Comeback Cats strike again as Panthers beat Capitals
Carter Verhaeghe was brought to the Florida Panthers for big postseason moments.
Like this one. Verhaeghe set a Panthers franchise playoff record with a five-point night — two goals, three assists — and the Comeback Cats pulled off another rally, this one obviously the most important of their season. Florida erased a 3-0 deficit to beat the Washington Capitals 5-3 on Wednesday night, taking a 3-2 lead in the teams’ Eastern Conference first-round series.
“Things are going pretty well right now for me,” said Verhaeghe, who helped Tampa Bay win a Stanley Cup in 2020. “And the team. We’re up 3-2, we have two chances to win one game, things are looking pretty good.”
Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 30 shots for Florida. Patric Hornqvist, Claude Giroux and Sam Reinhart also scored for the Panthers, and Aleksander Barkov had two assists.
T.J. Oshie scored twice for Washington, which also got a goal from Justin Schultz and two assists from Evgeny Kuznetsov. Ilya Samsonov stopped 33 shots.
“Felt like we gave that game away,” Washington’s Nicklas Backstrom said.
“Giving up a three-goal lead, I don’t know how many times we’ve done that this year,” Oshie said.
The answer would be twice. Both times, at Florida.
Verhaeghe broke the Panthers’ playoff scoring record that Ray Sheppard set on a four-point night back on April 22, 1996 — which remains the last, and only, season in which the Panthers won a playoff series.
They can change that Friday, when Game 6 is played in Washington. Game 7, if necessary, would be back at Florida on Sunday.
RANGERS 5, PENGUINS 3 >> Filip Chytil scored the tiebreaking goal early in the third period and New York staved off elimination with a victory over Pittsburgh in Game 5 of the teams’ firstround playoff series.
Jacob Trouba and Alexis Lafrenière each had a goal and an assist, and Adam Fox and Ryan Lindgren also scored for the Rangers. Igor Shesterkin, torched for 10 goals over three periods in the previous two games, had 27 saves.
Jake Guentzel had two goals and Kris Letang also scored for Pittsburgh, which leads the best of seven series 3-2. Evgeni Malkin had two assists and Louis Domingue finished with 29 saves.
Penguins star Sidney Crosby left with about seven minutes remaining in the second period with an apparent injury and didn’t return.
Game 6 is Friday in Pittsburgh, and a potential deciding Game 7 would be Sunday back at Madison Square Garden.
FLAMES 3, STARS 1 >> Mikael Backlund, Andrew Mangiapane and Trevor Lewis all scored in the third period, leading Calgary over Dallas for a 3-2 lead in their first-round playoff series.
Jacob Markstrom made 20 saves for the Flames, who can win the series Saturday in Dallas. If necessary, Game 7 would be back in Calgary on Sunday.
Jason Robertson scored the lone goal for Dallas, and Jake Oettinger stopped 29 shots.
Robertson, who had a team-leading 41 goals in the regular season, scored his first in the playoffs at 13:21 of the second period to put the Stars ahead 1-0.
But the line of Backlund, Mangiapane and Blake Coleman struck in the third, and Lewis sealed it with an empty-netter with 58 seconds left.