Conditioned Cats: Panthers excelling late in games during playoff run

NEW YORK – The legs feed the wolves, or in this case the Cats.

After Thursday’s 3-2 win over the New York Rangers in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Final, the Florida Panthers are on the cusp of their second straight Stanley Cup Final appearance, with a chance to close out the series in Game 6 on Saturday at Amerant Bank Arena at 8 p.m. ET.

Heading into the third period tied at 1-1 in a critical Game 5 on the road, the Panthers found another level and gave the Rangers all they could handle.

With 21 total shots through the first two periods, the Panthers peppered New York’s goaltender Igor Shesterkin with 16 shots. Per NaturalStatTrick.com, at 5-on-5 in the third period, the Panthers paced the Rangers in shots (14-7), high-danger shot attempts (8-2) and scoring chances (12-5).

The team’s ability to step up late in games stems back months ago.

“It starts with Bill Zito and bringing in a whole performance group with Dr. Chris McLellan and then Mike Joyce,” head coach Paul Maurice said of Florida’s third periods these playoffs. “We have other people that kind of work back and forth between the medical team on the team performance, guys just for recovery and things like that. We think at least the goal is for us to be pushing the envelope on how to recover hockey players because the conditioning and the hard work part has been who they are for two years. They started day one in camp for us, and they worked harder than the coaches asked them to. We always come back to the players being the key driver in this.”

Through 16 postseason games, the Panthers have outshot their opponents 185-129 in the third period and overtime.

During that same span, they’ve found the back of the net 25 times, while only allowing 12 goals against.

Like a boxing match, the Panthers wear their opponents down before going for the knockout.

Florida’s 687 hits in the playoffs rank first, with the next closest of the remaining teams being the Edmonton Oilers with 532 in the same number of games.

“I think it’s just conditioning and the kind of shape we're in,” said defenseman Dmitry Kulikov. “We build as the game goes on and we also wear teams down with our pressure and with our style of play. I think that comes into play in the second and third period.”

In a series that has featured four one-goal games and three overtimes, the Panthers ability to find an extra gear late could be crucial as they try to book their return trip to the Stanley Cup Final.

As it has been all playoffs, the key word until Game 6 remains the same.

Recover.

“It was a good battle by us,” captain Aleskander Barkov said after Game 5. “We showed up and played really well. Happy for the win. Now we’ve just got to recover and get ready for the next one.”