Panthers avert disaster, rally to beat league-worst Ducks in OT to regain playoff spot
When they gathered around their own bench after coughing up a potentially disastrous go-ahead goal to the Anaheim Ducks late in the third period, the Florida Panthers thought back to last month, when they were just second away from losing to the Boston Bruins before somehow rallying back for an overtime win.
The situation here was different — the Bruins are the best team in the league; the Ducks are the worst — and yet the Boston comeback still sticks with the Panthers, Paul Maurice said. It was a reminder Florida, once the comeback king of the NHL, could still pull out those thrilling victories no matter the opponent or situation and the Panthers needed it Monday in Sunrise to beat Anaheim, 4-3, in overtime.
“If it takes it to the last second, you just stay in the fight,” Maurice said.
With 5:51 left in regulation, left wing Ryan Lomberg was the first hero, scoring a game-tying goal just 78 seconds after the Ducks took a 3-2 lead. With 3:18 left in overtime, forward Carter Verhaeghe finished off Florida’s eighth come-from-behind win of the season, beating Anaheim goaltender John Gibson on a breakaway to push the Panthers, at least for the moment, back into postseason position.
The win vaulted Florida (29-25-6) past the New York Islanders for the No. 8 seed and guarantees the Panthers will end Presidents’ Day at least tied for a wild card.
It also came at the start of perhaps the most important month of Florida’s season. The Panthers’ win was their first of 10 straight games in Florida — they play 9 of 10 at home with one on the road against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Feb. 28 — and they hopes this stretch can what sends them into the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs.
“It’s huge,” Verhaeghe said. “We need some momentum coming into our homestand.”
Of course, they could have hardly afforded a loss to the Ducks (17-33-7) to start it and almost gave away a huge opportunity. Even though Florida finished with a 55-32 edge in shots, the Panthers never led until Verhaeghe scored in overtime, fell behind 2-0 in the first period and trailed 3-2 in the final six minutes of regulation after a defensive breakdown let Anaheim defenseman Dimitry Kulikov score an uncontested goal from the slot with 7:09 left in the third period. The 16,525 who decided to spend their day off at FLA Live Arena intermittently booed Florida as it played nearly half of the game from behind.
Other than Verhaeghe, the Panthers’ heroes were an unlikely bunch. Forward Eric Staal, 38, started the the initial rally when he scored to cut the Ducks’ lead to 2-1 with 17:48 left in the second period. Defenseman Marc Staal, 36, completed the initial comeback when he scored only his second goal of the season with 2:37 left in the second. The game-tying, overtime-forcing goal came from Lomberg, a bottom-six staple.
The third-line trio of Lomberg, Staal and fellow forward Nick Cousins was the dominant force for Florida. When those three were on the ice together for 5-on-5 action, the Panthers outshot the Ducks, 17-2.
“Sometimes you’ve got to drag everybody into it a little bit and that’s with hard-nosed play,” said Staal, a six-time All-Star and the oldest player on the team. “Our line did that for the whole game.”
Staal alone played 15:30, took four shots and generated three scoring chances.
On the game-tying goal, he was in the middle of a change, watching from afar as his two other linemates helped save Florida. Cousins started a cycle by sliding the puck across the blue line to defenseman Gustav Forsling, who launched a shot from deep, seeing traffic in front of the net. Lomberg was in the right place and knocked the game-tying goal past Gibson.
In a game with 55 shots and 21 high-danger chances, it was a simple play that was the biggest for the Panthers.
It was sort of like the game as a whole: It was not as easy or pretty as it probably should’ve been for the reigning Presidents’ Trophy winners against the worst team in the league, but it was good enough to win.
Right now, Florida will take one anyone it can.
“We know where we’re at,” Staal said. “We know we needed those points and it was a great response by everybody to continue to stay with it, and ultimately get two points at the end of the night.”
This story was originally published February 20, 2023 at 4:30 PM.
