‘Comeback Cats’ strike again, rally from 3 down to beat Caps and go up 3-2 in first round
The building was ready to explode — it always is for this never-say-die Florida Panthers — and the Panthers just wanted one bounce to go their way.
They felt like they had seized control of Game 5 and yet they were down by three with less than 34 minutes to go. The Washington Capitals — battle tested, but still a No. 8 seed — were close to sending Florida to the brink of elimination.
All the Panthers needed was one goal. When they got it, the Capitals’ lead was gone less than eight minutes later. In a season of massive come-from-behind wins, none was bigger than Florida’s 5-3 stunner to beat the Washington Capitals on Wednesday in Sunrise and now the Panthers are on the verge of reaching the second round of the 2022 Stanley Cup playoffs.
“We’ve been doing that all year. We never give up,” star center Aleksander Barkov said. “We know when we play the right way, we have all the chances to win the game.”
Forward Carter Verhaeghe contributed on all five goals, scoring to start the rally in the second and delivering his second straight game-winning goal in the third. He also handed out primary assist to right wing Patric Hornqvist to cut the Capitals’ lead to 3-2, had another on forward Sam Reinhart’s game-tying goal and teed up versatile All-Star forward Claude Giroux for an insurance goal in the final five minutes.
On Monday, he scored a game-tying goal in the first period after Florida fell behind early, then scored the game-winner in overtime to even the series at 2-2. The 26-year-old Canadian now has nine points in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
“He’s been stepping us huge for us,” Hornqvist said. “The goals tonight couldn’t come at a better time.”
For the second time in three days, Florida was all but dead, stuck in a precarious hole and in need of a thrilling comeback to avoid falling to the brink of elimination. Now, they’re up 3-2 in their first-round series — it’s their first series lead since lead 2012 — and will have a chance to clinch their spot in the second round when they face the Capitals on Friday in Washington.
Florida hasn’t won a postseason series since it reached the 1996 Stanley Cup Finals in just its third season of existence.
Fittingly, it has been a series of comebacks for the Panthers. They lost Games 1 and 3, and were 2:04 away from a near-insurmountable series deficit Monday at Capital One Arena before Reinhart scored with the goalie pulled to force overtime in Game 4.
On Wednesday, they were down 3-0 with less than 34 minutes left and then they roared back to life, just like they did all throughout the regular season.
Florida packed 20,023 inside FLA Live Arena and they were ready for a comeback because of how often they saw them all year. In the regular season, the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Panthers tied an NHL record with 29 come-from-behind victories, set a league record with five comebacks of three goals or more and became only the third team in history to come back from multiple four-goal deficits in the same season.
Their rally Wednesday had all the hallmarks of those thrilling victories. Florida was dominating the early stages of play — the Panthers outshot Washington, 15-10, in the first period — and even had the first three shots of the second period before the Capitals got a two-goal flurry to put Florida in peril.
With two goals in 1:25, Washington went up 3-0 with 16:22 left in the second period. The Capitals — who are a significant underdog in this series, but still have nine players left from their 2018 Stanley Cup-winning team — were inching toward a chance to seal their upset back at home Friday.
With 13:10 left in the second period, the Panthers’ comeback began and it started with Verhaeghe, who, at just 26, is one of the most playoff-tested players on the roster because of the bit part he played on the Tampa Bay Lightning’s run to the Cup in 2020.
When the series has gotten its toughest, the Canadian has come through most consistently.
“He’s skating, he’s taking pucks to the net, he’s playing great,” Hornqvist said. “When players do that on our team, they usually find success.”
For the first, he was in the right place at the right time after Barkov whipped a shot off the boards behind the Capitals’ goal, able to tap in an easy goal to start the comeback. For the second, he again wound up in the right place at the right time — he was getting off the ice for a line change when Washington misplayed a puck at its offensive blue line — and he followed it with a perfectly timed saucer pass to spring Hornqvsit for a breakaway goal.
With two goals in 5:37, Florida cut the Capitals’ lead to 3-2. Less than three minutes later, it was gone. Chaos around Washington’s goal left a puck on the doorstep for Reinhart, who came from behind the net and knocked in the game-tying goal with 5:19 left in the second.
“It’s getting that goal,” Hornqvist said. “Washington had the game before that. After that goal, I think we took over.”
Said Verhaeghe: “We kind of took over in the second.”
The winning goal was Verhaeghe’s, too, although Barkov made it happen.
The Panthers only needed 3:04 of the third period to turn the Capitals into the chasers. Barkov flew into the zone and held the puck until he was almost down to the goal line, drawing Samsonov’s attention away from Verhaeghe on the other side of the goal. Once Samsonov made his move, Barkov made his and the crowd was cheering before the puck even hit Verhaeghe’s stick for the game-winning redirection.
Goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, who gave up three goals on the first 13 shots he faced, stopped the last 18 he saw and Giroux added an insurance goal with 4:05 remaining — also assisted by Verhaeghe.
Florida is on the verge of something rare. It took something special to get there.
“We showed our resiliency and belief,” Brunette said. “We’re in any hockey game.”
This story was originally published May 11, 2022 at 10:21 PM.
