05/10/2022 – Page 2 – CanucksBanter

Florida Panthers right wing Claude Giroux (28), center Aleksander Barkov (16) and center Sam Reinhart, right, celebrate Reinhart's goal in the third period of Game 4 in the first round of the NHL Stanley Cup hockey playoffs against the Washington Capitals, Monday, May 9, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

By STEPHEN WHYNO Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The “Comeback Cats” are back — in playoff form.

Known for their propensity to play from behind and win on the way to the NHL’s best regular season, the Florida Panthers finally delivered a little of that magic in the postseason, and not a minute too late.

Sam Reinhart tied it late in regulation, Carter Verhaeghe scored the overtime winner and the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Panthers beat the Washington Capitals 3-2 in Game 4 Monday night to tie the first-round series.

No team had more comeback victories than Florida’s 24 this season, and now it has home-ice advantage back going into Game 5 on Wednesday night in Sunrise.

“I feel a lot of trust in them that they’ll make something happen,” interim coach Andew Brunette said. “They’ve done it all year and they continued to do it tonight.”

The Panthers were just over two minutes away from facing the prospect of getting knocked out at home. Then, with goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky pulled for an extra attacker, Reinhart collected a loose puck after it bounced off Capitals forward Garnet Hathaway and beat Ilya Samsonov with 2:04 remaining in the third period.

“Those are the kind of situations you want to be in as a hockey player,” Reinhart said. “It’s a game that can really go either way at the end of it and we stuck with it and we’re happy with the result.”

Brunette was happy he didn’t call Bobrovsky to the bench sooner. The two-time Vezina Trophy winner made a right pad save on Marcus Johansson with 3:24 left — 15 seconds before going off and a few shifts before Reinhart scored.

“It’s huge having him back there,” Reinhart said. “He’s been solid all series and gives us all the confidence in the world to make plays.”

Given the combination of nerves and playoff inexperience that contributed to Florida’s struggles in the series, Reinhart’s goal may turn out to be the one that saved its season. Verhaeghe’s second goal of the game 4:57 into OT gave the Panthers an extra shot of adrenaline for the flight home.

“We wanted to come in and have our best game of the series, and I think we did a pretty good job,” said Verhaeghe, who played eight games in the 2020 playoff bubble for the Tampa Bay Lightning when they won the first of consecutive Stanley Cup titles. “It’s just kind of a building block. We know we have another level to get to, and we’re a great team, so I think it’s just building some confidence.

The Panthers outshot the Capitals 32-16 and look to be finding their game even amid some trouble finishing. They went 0 for 4 on the power play to make it 0 for 13 in the series and couldn’t put the puck in the net at 5 on 5. Verhaeghe’s first goal came at 4 on 4.

Washington let a late lead slip away after going up 2-1 on Evgeny Kuznetsov’s goal with 10:29 left in regulation. T.J. Oshie scored a power-play goal in the first for the Capitals, who have not won consecutive playoff games sine 2019.

“At the end, it was bad bounces and it goes in,” captain Alex Ovechkin said. “It is going to be a tough, long series, so move on. Forget about it, move on.”

Holding on would have given the Capitals an opportunity to finish off the Panthers on Wednesday. Blowing the lead is a blow for a team already playing without right winger Tom Wilson and now needing to win at least once more on the road.

“In third period, it was everything in our hands,” Kuznetsov said. “We’re going to play best-of-three right now. There is no panic. Still pretty good chance.”

The Panthers feel the same way after clawing back in a series that has seen the teams trade wins. But they’re trying to stay even keel given the big expectations on them to make a run and the climb they had to make to tie things up.

“Glad to go home even in the series 2-2,” captain Aleksander Barkov said. “Just keep working. Keep getting better. Keep finding ways to win.”

NOTES: Brunette hopes the NHL’s department of player safety looks at Oshie’s hit on Sam Bennett right before Kuznetsov scored. “I didn’t like the hit,” he said. “I thought it was targeted to the head.” … The Panthers stuck with the same lineup from Games 1-3, but moved some players around at forward and on defense.

By STEPHEN HAWKINS Associated Press

DALLAS (AP) — Rasmus Andersson, Johnny Gaudreau and the Calgary Flames felt much more like themselves, and got even in their first-round playoff series with an onslaught of shots.

It helped that they also got to play a lot of 5-on-5 hockey, though Andersson did score Calgary’s first power-play goal since early in the playoff opener, as the Flames beat the Dallas Stars 4-1 in Game 4 on Monday night.

“We had a lot of long shifts in their zone and overall a good game, a good 60 minutes,” said Andersson, who had only two of Calgary’s 54 shots. “We didn’t take too many penalties tonight too, so we get to play 5 on 5, and that’s that’s what we were, a really good team.”

Gaudreau converted a penalty shot with 12:13 left in the game to make it 2-0 Calgary, and later assisted on Elias Lindholm’s third goal of the series as the Pacific Division champions regained home-ice advantage over the wild-card Stars. Mikael Backlund added an empty-netter in the final minute.

in Game 3 was rejected by Jake Oettinger on a late breakaway that would have tied that game.

The Flames forward, a 100-point scorer, was on another breakaway Monday night when John Klingberg was penalized for hooking. Gaudreau made a nifty move on the penalty shot to push the puck through the legs of Jake Oettinger, the 23-year-old goalie who had 50 saves.

“I feel like since Game 1 I’ve been playing well, playing hard against this team,” Gaudreau said. “Last game had a breakaway …. tonight a little different story, found the net. That’s the way hockey is”

Game 5 is Wednesday night in Calgary, where the teams traded shutouts in the first two games while combining for only three total goals — one of those an empty-netter at the end of the Stars’ 2-0 win in Game 2. The series returns to Dallas on Friday night for the sixth game in the best-of-seven series.

“We were off a little bit, and when we’re off a little bit against a top-tier team like that, a big favorite in this league … they’re going to make you pay, and they made us pay tonight,” said Tyler Seguin, who had a late power-play goal for the Stars.

That was the only shot to get past Jacob Markstrom, who had 34 saves.

The Flames were just more than a minute into a 5-on-3 opportunity midway through the second period when Andersson traded passes with Matthew Tkachuk before his shot from the top of the slot made it 1-0.

“It was a solid game for us,” Calgary coach Daryl Sutter said. “The strength of our team is 5 on 5. Our special teams function from what we do 5 on 5.”

Calgary had failed to convert on 13 consecutive power-play attempts before that, including two earlier in the game, since scoring five seconds into their first power play of the series. That was five minutes into Game 1, and the only goal in that 1-0 win.

Before Calgary had a two-man advantage, that power play opened on a split save by Oettinger, who had his right leg fully extended against the post when he pushed away a shot by Andersson.

The Stars have also struggled on the power play, going 0 for 4 with a man advantage in Game 4 before Seguin scored with 4:57 left to get the Stars within 3-1.

Both teams are 2 for 17 on power plays in the series.

“As badly as we played, there was times that we had a chance to give us some momentum, and we didn’t, we didn’t capitalize,” Stars coach Rick Bowness said.

Oettinger has faced plenty of shots in his first four NHL playoff starts. He had 25 saves in the opener, 29 in his shutout win and then 39 more in Game 3.

Midway through the first period Monday, after being peppered with a sequence of shots and unable to secure a loose puck, Oettinger made a impressive save when he reached back while falling down to snag the puck with his glove to deny Tyler Toffoli.

That was only a couple of minutes after Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen hit the crossbar with a shot.

“Thought we started well, thought our first period was good,” Andersson said. “We stuck with it. We got a big power play good there, and then obviously got the second one and the third one. So overall, it was a good game and you know, it all started with a good start in the first.”