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With a five-point night from Carter Verhaeghe, the Florida Panthers overcame a three-goal deficit to beat the Washington Capitals 5-3 and grab a 3-2 series lead in the Eastern Conference first round.
With a five-point night — two goals, three assists — Verhaeghe broke a Panthers franchise playoff record, and the Comeback Cats pulled off yet another comeback, arguably the most meaningful of their season. On Wednesday night, the Florida Panthers rallied from a 3-0 hole to defeat the Washington Capitals 5-3, establishing a 3-2 lead in their Eastern Conference first-round series.
With a five-point night — two goals, three assists — Verhaeghe broke a Panthers franchise playoff record, and the Comeback Cats pulled off yet another comeback, arguably the most meaningful of their season. On Wednesday night, the Florida Panthers rallied from a 3-0 hole to defeat the Washington Capitals 5-3, establishing a 3-2 lead in their Eastern Conference first-round series.
For Florida, Sergei Bobrovsky made 30 saves. Patric Hornqvist, Claude Giroux, and Sam Reinhart also scored for the Panthers, who also received two assists from Aleksander Barkov.
T.J. Oshie scored twice for Washington, which also received goals from Justin Schultz and Evgeny Kuznetsov. Ilya Samsonov came up with 33 saves.
Ray Sheppard set the Panthers’ playoff scoring mark with a four-point night on April 22, 1996, which remains the last and only season in which the Panthers won a playoff series. They have a chance to rectify that when Game 6 takes place in Washington on Friday. If required, Game 7 would be played on Sunday in Florida.
“We didn’t start the way we wanted to… then we started playing the way we wanted to,” he stated “Barkov explained.
After a pair of spectacular plays on both ends, Verhaeghe gave the Panthers the lead for good at 3:04 of the third. He forced a mistake deep in the zone, passed the ball to Barkov, and then ran for almost 100 feet of ice to locate a suitable location to receive the return pass.
Florida lead 4-3 after Barkov put it on his stick and Verhaeghe put it in the net. From there, Bobrovsky shut the door, Giroux added an insurance goal at 15:55, and the Comeback Cats had done it yet again.
“It seemed like we squandered that game, “Nicklas Backstrom of Washington remarked.
Florida recorded an NHL-high 29 comeback victories this season. After losing by three goals in five games, the Panthers rallied in the final minutes of Game 4 to force overtime in Washington, winning early in the extra session and tying the series.
The Panthers’ comeback matched the biggest in an NHL playoff game since the San Jose Sharks overcame the Los Angeles Kings 6-5 on April 19, 2011. There had been three two-goal deficits in these playoffs as of Wednesday, but no one has managed to come back from a three-goal deficit.
Until recently.
At 7:09 of the first period, Oshie scored his first goal by redirecting the puck. He lined up in the slot, blocking Bobrovsky as much as he could, then modified the trajectory of a shot by John Carlson just enough to get it into the net for a 1-0 Washington lead.
It remained that way until the second period, when two goals in 1:25 appeared to give Washington complete control. Schultz found a crease in front of the net and blasted the puck through to make it 2-0, and Oshie made it 3-0 on a 2-on-1 break after receiving a pass from Kuznetsov.
The Panthers responded by doing what they do best: rallying.
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