RECAP: Panthers 4, Capitals 3 (OT)

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Sam Reinhart lit the lamp 15 seconds into overtime to lift the Florida Panthers to a 4-3 win over the Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena on Wednesday.

Their second straight win in overtime, the Panthers now sit at 7-4-1.

“They’re a resilient group,” head coach Paul Maurice said. “I’m happy with it. It’s not going to work perfect right now. We don’t have that expectation. Get into the third period, we’re lucky to get that game to even. We’re not worrying about style points.”

Benefitting from a friendly bounce in their own barn, the Capitals opened the scoring when an attempted pass from Anthony Mantha hit off a Panthers skater in the slot and sent the puck fluttering through the air and past Sergei Bobrovsky to make 1-0 at 10:42 of the first period.

Quickly answering for the Panthers, Oliver Ekman-Larsson took a pass from Matthew Tkachuk and beat Darcy Kuemper with a heat-seeking missile from the high slot to make it 1-1 at 12:49.

Not long after that, Aleksander Barkov set up in the left circle and one-timed a slick backhand pass from Reinhart, who drew the attention of three Capitals skaters with some nifty work along the boards, straight past Kuemper’s glove to give the Panthers a 2-1 advantage at 16:45.

With the goal, Barkov extended his point streak against Washington to 11 games.

“They’re driving the offensive game for us right now,” Maurice said of Barkov and Reinhart.

Getting the score knotted up once again, Connor McMichael slipped past the defense on the penalty kill, collected a dish from Aliaksei Protas and beat Bobrovsky with a backhand shot on a breakaway for a shorthanded goal that brought the score to 2-2 at 6:13 of the second period.

After the Panthers had a goal from Sonny Milano taken off the board with a successful challenge for offside, the Capitals stuck with it and struck again soon after when Mantha ripped a shot into the far side of the cage on a 2-on-1 rush to make it 3-2 at 15:51.

Keeping with the trend of trading goals, the Panthers pulled even early in the third period when Gustav Forsling spotted Evan Rodrigues cutting to the net and set him up for a tap-in goal with an incredible tape-to-tape feed from beyond the left circle through traffic to make it 3-3 at 3:33.

“We’ve actually been trying that pretty much the whole year, trying to make that play happen,” said Rodrigues, who’s racked up three goals and seven assists through 12 games. “There’s teams that it’s been open against. He makes a great play. A big goal. It helped us get the win.”

Despite a few good looks on both sides, neither team could find a fourth goal in regulation.

Of Bobrovsky’s 25 saves, 10 came in the third period.

“A few massive saves,” Reinhart said.

Once the action got into overtime, the Panthers wasted no time in ending things.

After Barkov collected a long stretch pass from Rodrigues, the captain banked the biscuit off the wall right onto the stick of Reinhart. Skating toward the net with a defender draped over his back, Reinhart then lifted the puck right over Kuemper’s glove to cap off the massive 4-3 win.

Taking just 15 seconds, it was the fastest tally to start an overtime period in franchise history.

“We had our moments, but we were able to stick with it,” Reinhart said of the team’s ability to battle back. “Those are the type of points that are huge at this time of the year and pay off later. We know how big it is to come out of the gates and start banking some points early in the year."

THEY SAID IT

“We’ve done a lot of good things. We’ve had some great starts in games and we’ve had some comeback wins. We know the ability is there. Now, it’s just continuing to do the small things over and over again. That’s how you kind of put together a full 60.” – Evan Rodrigues on the Panthers finding ways to win early on this season

“The identity we’re wanting to play, the game plan we’re trying to execute on a nightly basis, it’s to be successful when you’re not 100%. That’s what it comes down to. You can be 100% all of the time. We saw that last year. These are important ones at this time of the year to build that structure and build that consistency.” – Sam Reinhart on the Panthers having success despite missing key players

“That was a veteran goalie’s game. That was a mentally difficult game. The ice was challenging, I think for both teams. It is some nights in the NHL. That’s fine, but it makes it especially hard for goalies because the game becomes far less predictable.” – Paul Maurice on Sergei Bobrovsky coming up with some big saves late

CATS STATS

- Aleksander Barkov is the first player in franchise history with 100 career road goals.

- The Panthers won 56.9% of their faceoffs.

- Sam Reinhart recorded his seventh multi-point game of the season.

- Evan Rodrigues and Gustav Forsling each posted a +3 plus/minus rating.

- Ryan Lomberg accumulated a team-high six hits.

- The Panthers led 12-6 in high-danger shot attempts at 5-on-5.

WHAT’S NEXT?

After a quick one-game trip, the Panthers will now settle in for two games at Amerant Bank Arena, beginning with a rematch of last year’s Eastern Conference Final against the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday at 7 p.m. ET.

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