Caps Fall 5-3 to Florida in Game 5

Two nights after his overtime goal in Game 4 evened the series at 2-2, Panthers winger Carter Verhaeghe had a five-point night to pace his team to a 5-3 win over the Capitals in Game 5 of the first-round playoff series between the two teams on Wednesday night at FLA Live Arena. Verhaeghe scored Florida's first goal, netted the game-winner and added three primary helpers as the Cats scored five unanswered goals to erase a 3-0 Washington lead early in the second period.

"We took over in the second [period]," says Verhaeghe. "We were making plays and playing the right way. We were moving our feet and getting pucks on net, and that's what happens when you fire away."
"Back-to-back games like that, tonight with the five points, and a big part of every goal and every play we made," says Panthers interim coach Andrew Brunette of Verhaeghe's remarkable last 48 hours. "It takes everybody a step up, and it was his turn here the last few games. Hopefully he keeps it rolling. We talked last game about how vital he is to the way we play, and he was relentless all night."
With the win, Florida takes its first lead in a playoff series since 2012. Game 6 is back in Washington on Friday night.
For the Caps, it's been a stunning 48 hours. They led Game 4 by a 2-1 score and were on the verge of a 3-1 series lead with just over two minutes left in regulation, but they couldn't close the door. Now they must win the next two to keep their season alive.
"We gave up the lead," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "You're in that position [of being up three goals], there's a way that you have to play against them in order to be successful. When we did that in the third period, we were successful. And when we didn't, we weren't."
The Capitals' ongoing domination on special teams enabled them to get out of the first with a 1-0 lead; Washington scored the game's first goal on the power play and killed off both Florida man advantages in the first. For the fifth straight game, the Caps cashed in with the extra man, doing so on their first opportunity of the game. T.J. Oshie netted his third power-play goal of the series at 7:09 of the first, tipping home a John Carlson wrist shot from center point.
Washington's first period was fine until Carlson went off for cross-checking at 15:08. The Cats had three shots on the ensuing power play and also missed twice, and Garnet Hathaway ate a couple of pucks for the Caps on that kill. And Florida did not relent after Carlson exited the box; the Panthers poured eight more shots on Samsonov at 5-on-5 in the final 2:34 of the first, missing once as well. During that span, the Caps got key blocks from Trevor van Riemsdyk, Marcus Johansson and Hathaway again, enabling them to get to the room with their one-goal lead.
The second was a wild one. Washington managed to wrangle the momentum back from the Panthers early in the period, doubling its lead on a Justin Schultz goal at 2:13 of the middle stanza. Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky stopped but did not secure Lars Eller's drive from distance, and Schultz was there to pot the rebound.
A mere 85 seconds later, the Caps added to their lead on a 2-on-1 rush with Evgeny Kuznetsov issuing a sublime feed to Oshie, who scored his second of the night from the inside of the right circle. With goals on consecutive shots, the Caps owned a 3-0 lead at 3:38.
But that was as good as it got for the Capitals on this night. Most of Washington's wounds were self-inflicted, and it simply was unable to stop the bleeding.
Florida got going just over three minutes later when Verhaeghe notched his fourth goal of the series, getting a lively bounce off the back wall and tucking it in on the weak side at 6:50. Seconds before the goal, Oshie turned the puck over in neutral ice when he had a chance to get it in deep.
While Washington was applying some offensive zone heat, a Martin Fehervary shot missed the mark and came out hard toward Carlson at the right point. Carlson whiffed as he tried to one-time it, and Verhaeghe was able to get to the puck and sauce a feed to Patric Hornqvist, sending the latter in on a breakaway. Hornqvist beat Ilya Samsonov at 12:27 to make it a 3-2 contest.
Sam Reinhart tied it for the Panthers on a goalmouth scramble at 14:41 of the second, scoring Florida's third goal in a span of less than eight minutes. Washington had five white sweaters surrounding its net and Samsonov, but none of them could corral a loose puck down low. Reinhart tapped it in at the left post, and the game was all even at 3-3 headed to the third.
Florida took the lead early in the final frame, doing so 15 seconds after being whistled for icing. The Cats won the draw in their own end, but lost control of the puck. Dmitry Orlov kept it in for the Caps at the right point, and he carried closer to the circle, only to be stripped by Verhaeghe, who quickly sent a stretch pass to Sasha Barkov at the red line. As Barkov gained the zone, Verhaeghe blazed his way up the middle and past everyone else on the ice but Samsonov. Taking a return feed from Barkov at the top of the paint, he chipped it in for a 4-3 Florida lead at 3:04.
With less than five minutes remaining, Verhaeghe set up Claude Giroux for the insurance strike on a 2-1 rush, and Giroux finished with a flourish to make it 5-3 on the Florida's fifth unanswered goal in under 30 minutes of playing time.
"We got caught on a couple mistakes of us not making the right play," says Oshie. "Kind of making a hope for [play] or leaving a position we're not supposed to leave, and in a couple of instances there was a goal five or 10 seconds later. And then on a couple there wasn't a goal, but they had the puck in our end for it felt like four or five minutes.
"We kind of shot ourselves in the foot here tonight. They're a great team. You can't give them offense, because they're going to find a way to create some on their own. But for a lot of the game, I liked the way we played. It's unfortunate that it didn't show up on the scoreboard and they took advantage of their chances, but there was a lot of the game where I thought we did a good job."