RECAP: Panthers 3, Lightning 2 (OT)

SUNRISE, Fla. – Hearts are still racing in South Florida.

In a goalie battle for the ages at Amerant Bank Arena, Carter Verhaeghe broke through for the Florida Panthers when he roofed a backhand shot into the top of the cage 2:59 into overtime to secure a 3-2 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning and a 2-0 series lead in the Eastern Conference First Round on Tuesday.

“Honestly, it could’ve been anyone,” said Verhaeghe, who’s winner came on a sweet dish from linemate Anton Lundell. “Any time that we go to OT, we’re pretty confident. It can go any way. At the end of the day, it’s one shot and someone’s got to make a play eventually.”

Sure, it could’ve been anymore.

But it always seems to be Verhaeghe.

Helping the Panthers win their 11^th straight overtime game in the playoffs, Verhaeghe moved into a tie for third place on the NHL’s all-time overtime playoff goals list with five.

Only Hall of Famers Maurice Richard (6) and Joe Sakic (8) have scored more.

“He’s got the clutch gene,” teammate Aaron Ekblad said with a big smile while staring at Verhaeghe during the duo’s post-game media availability. “He was born with it, man.”

After Sam Reinhart opened the scoring in Game 1, fellow “Sam’s Club” member Sam Bennett struck first in Game 2, taking advantage of some chaos around the crease and burying a backhander from the slot to put the Panthers up 1-0 at 6:16 of the first period.

The Lightning challenged for goaltender inference, but the goal was upheld after it was confirmed that one of their own players pushed Matthew Tkachuk into Andrei Vasilevskiy.

Not long after their own power play was unsuccessful, the Panthers found themselves on the penalty kill. Not giving Tampa Bay’s top-ranked power play much to work with, they ended up not surrendering a single shot on goal, keeping momentum firmly in their favor.

On their second power play of the first period, the Panthers doubled their lead when former Stanley Cup champion Vladimir Tarasenko, who was the team’s big addition at the trade deadline, potted a rebound after a shot from Oliver Ekman-Larsson to make it 2-0 a 15:12.

Another surgical start, the Panthers allowed just three shots on goal in the opening frame.

Getting the Lightning on the board just 48 seconds into the second period, Brayden Point, who scored a team-high 46 goals during the regular season, set up shop on the top of the blue paint and tipped a shot from Anthony Duclair past Sergei Bobrovsky to make it 2-1.

Starting to gain some traction and make a push of their own, the Lightning pulled even when Steven Stamkos teed up a pass from Victor Hedman and blasted home a one-timer from his usual spot in the center of the left circle on the power play to make it 2-2 at 5:46.

In addition to losing the lead, the Panthers also lost a key player early in the period as Bennett left the game with an upper-body injury and did not return. On the play, the hard-nosed center appeared to get hit somewhere near his wrist by a teammate’s slap shot.

An update on Bennett’s status should come after practice on Wednesday.

With just under six minutes left in the second period, Bobrovsky left the arena briefly stunned and in a collective silence when he threw himself across the crease to blindly rob Matt Dumba on a point-blank shot from the left side of the net and keep things tied up.

“That was unbelievable,” Ekman-Larsson said of the save, which set social media ablaze. “Obviously we know that he can make those saves, but that was something else. That’s what we have on this team. We have big-time players when we need them the most.”

After a few consecutive big saves from Vasilevskiy, Bobrovsky came up with another incredible stop of his own when he denied a backhand shot by Anthony Cirelli with a toe save late in the period.

Locked in a goaltending duel throughout the game, Bobrovsky, who stopped 21 of 22 shots, made 10 high-danger saves, while Vasilevskiy, who turned aside 34 of 37 shots, made 16.

“If you slow the game down, there’s incredible saves going on in tight,” Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said. "There’s some pretty fine goaltending going on in this series.”

In a game chock-full of big moments, easily one of the biggest came early in the third period when the Panthers killed off an entire four-minute power play for the Lightning, a sequence highlight by a clutch save from Bobrovsky on a one-timer from Nikita Kucherov.

Overall, Florida's penalty kill went 5-for-6 against Tampa Bay’s lethal power play.

“I thought that was one of the biggest moments,” Bobrovsky said of the four-minute kill. “They have a really dangerous power play. I thought the guys did a great job to kill that.”

Helping the game get to overtime, Bobrovsky’s final big save of the game came when he stopped Duclair on a partial breakaway with less than a minute remaining on the clock.

And as we know, overtime is Verhaeghe’s time.

After Niko Mikkola threw the puck into the offensive zone, Tkachuk got it off the wall and onto Lundell’s stick in the slot. Drawing three Lightning skaters to him, the young Finn then sent the biscuit to Verhaeghe, who patiently outwaited Vasilevskiy before lighting the lamp to lock in the 3-2 win.

If there was any roof left on the building, it was gone after that.

“In the playoffs, it’s so much fun to play,” Bobrovsky said. “There’s momentum swings back and forth. It’s kind of like a roller coaster. You’re just trying to stay with the moment, one moment, and focus. Those little things, they build up.”

THEY SAID IT

“We know that he can score goals. We have a lot of guys that can do that, but it’s nice to have a guy that can do that when the game is on the line and in overtime.” – Oliver Ekman-Larsson on Carter Verhaeghe

“Bob’s been unbelievable. He’s our backbone back there. It’s crazy. Every night he amazes me. That was a huge save at a huge time. They could’ve went up by a goal at that time. It seems like every time he needs to be there, he’s there. He’s unbelievable” – Carter Verhaeghe on Sergei Bobrovsky

“My vantage point was the bench, in shock. It was incredible. You love to see it.” – Aaron Ekblad on Sergei Bobrovsky’s high-reel save

“It’s a big win. We have a great group of guys, a tight group of guys. It’s a big win for us.” – Sergei Bobrovsky on tonight's win

CATS STATS

- Vladimir Tarasenko scored the 45^th goal of his playoff career.

- The Panthers improved their all-time playoff overtime record to 12-8.

- The Panthers led 65-56 in hits.

- The Panthers won 56.5% of their faceoffs.

- Niko Mikkola led the team in hits (8) and blocked shots (3)

- Every Panthers defenseman blocked at least one shot.

- The Panthers led 30-14 in scoring chances at 5-on-5.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Time to head to the Gulf Coast.

After winning each of the first two games on home ice, the Panthers will try to take a 3-0 series lead when they battle the Lightning on the road in Game 3 at Amalie Arena on Thursday at 7 p.m. ET.

The official watch party will be at Funky Buddha in Oakland Park.

For more info, visit FloridaPanthers.com/CatsOnTap.