Verhaeghe and miracle Florida Panthers, down 3, rally to beat Caps 5-3 for 3-2 series lead | Opinion
His name is Carter Verhaeghe. His teammates call him Swaggy. He just earned himself a piece of South Florida sports legend and lore. He just scored the Florida Panthers’ biggest goal since 1996 -- make that goals -- and saved a magic season from probably ending way too soon.
Verhaeghe scored two goals Wednesday night in Game 5 including the game winner as the Panthers rallied from three down to stun the Washington Capitals 5-3 and take a 3-2 lead in this best-of-7 NHL first round playoff series.
He also had three assists.
Two nights after he also had the Cats’ winning goal in overtime.
He is the mayor of Sunrise by acclimation. Mayor Verhaeghe. At least for this week.
Now the Comeback Cats will return to D.C. for Friday’s Game 6 able to win the series on road ice, or return home for a decisive Game 7 on Sunday.
Neither seemed likely late in Monday’s game or for much of Wednesday’s, until Verhaeghe led the charge.
“Things are going pretty well now, we’re up 3-2,” said Verhaeghe, steadfastly declining every postgame invitation to admit feeling great about his own performance.
So others bragged for him.
“He’s been the best player on the ice the past couple games,” said Patric Hornqvist.
The way Game 4 was won and the huge rally to take Game 5 -- on this stage? With these stakes?
Simply one of the most remarkable back to back team performances I have seen across decades covering sports in this market.
The Panthers Claude Giroux tried to tell us.
“It’s the playoffs,” he’d said before Game 5 Wednesday night. “It’s stressful, it’s exciting. A lot of emotions going on. We’re enjoying it right now. That’s why we play the game.”
He meant the previous game, when the Panthers trailed late, on the edge of falling into a deep 3-1 hole to Washington, the Cats’ magic season in grave peril. That was the stress. Then came the late tying goal then the overtime winner. That was the excitement. The enjoyment.
Then came Game 5.
The stress was just getting started.
The rest of it, too.
In a teetering 2-2 series, the Panthers fell behind 3-0, the home crowd numb. It seemed Florida would be headed back up to D.C. for a must-win Friday.
But wait. Have you not watched this Panthers team?
The highest-scoring team in hockey came to life.
As quickly as the Panthers had fallen down by three, it would soon be 3-3.
Cats made it 3-1 on Verhaeghe’s fourth goal of this series on service from Aleksander Barkov and Giroux.
It was 3-2, the crowd as loud as it had been all night, when Verhaeghe collected a loose puck in the neutral zone and sent a gorgeous pass that hit Patric Hornqvist in stride. May any Tua Tagovailoa deep pass to Tyreek Hill be as perfect. Hornqvist was 1-on-1 with the goalie. And won.
Then the crowd of 20,000 got even louder.
Suddenly a three-goal deficit was erased and it was tied late in the second period with Sam Reinhart’s wraparound goal off a shot by the omnipresent Verhaeghe.
Then it was 4-3. Verhaeghe, again, on a perfect cross-pass from Barkov.
And then it was 5-3, the Sunrise arena a party, when Giroux scored on an assist from (like I have to tell you?) Verhaeghe.
He’s a fun story, Verhaeghe is. Easy to root for. He climbed six rungs if minor-league hockey starting with the Niagara IceDogs. Paid the proverbial dues. Didn’t get his break in the NHL until age 24, with Tampa Bay in 2019.
Now, Mondand and Wednesday have been the best games of his life, even he’ll never let it show.
It seems a nitpick in context, but special teams again hurt Florida.
Throughout this series and including the start of Game 5, the Cats’ power play has been powerless, while Florida’s penalty kill ... hasn’t, at least not enough.
Washington’s early goal, 7:09 in, came on a power play when nemesis T.J. Oshie slapped a shot through traffic at the home net. It was the Caps’ sixth power play goal in 18 tries this series, not the penalty-kill percentage Florida would like.
By contrast, the Panthers failed in two man advantages to make the horn sound in the first period, and on one later, making Florida an unfathomable 0-for-16 on the power play this series.
Even with that, after a pair of miracle comebacks in a row, Florida is in command.
Throughout NHL history (in 115 instances), teams that have won Game 4 on the road to make it 2-2 go on to win the series and advance 56.5 percent of the time.
Game 5 trends are more telling, if you believe in such barometers.
Teams that win the pivotal game to go up 3-2 (in 420 instances) go on to win the series at a 79.1 percent clip. It nudges up to 80.7 percent when the Game 5 win came at home.
Wednesday felt like nothing less than the biggest Panthers home game since that magic run to the 1996 Stanley Cup Final.
But those Cinderella Cats came home down 2-0 in that Final. The bigger game may have been the Game 6 home win over Pittsburgh on May 30, ‘96 that created the Game 7 Florida then won on the road to reach the Final..
The stakes and expectations are so much higher 26 years later.
The ‘96 Panthers are were just happy to be there, where no one thought they’d be.
These Cats dominated, had the best regular season record in the NHL and scored the most goals of any team in, coincidentally, 26 seasons.
Wednesday also completed the first back-to-back home Game 5s in the Miami Heat and Panthers’ shared history.
The basketball team took care of business with a huge rout of Philadelphia on Tuesday.
One night later, it was no rout. It was a triumph even more impressive for its comeback.
““We’ve shown our resilience all season long,” said coach Andrew Brunette.
“We know we have another level to get to,” said Verhaeghe -- the man helping the Panthers find it.
This story was originally published May 11, 2022 at 10:21 PM.
