SUNRISE, Fla. — The Florida Panthers put together the best regular season in franchise history this year by tying NHL’s record for come-from-behind wins.
They’ll need another comeback in the first round of the 2022 Stanley Cup playoffs.
The Panthers gave up two goals in the final 12 minutes of Game 1 on Tuesday, blowing a third-period lead to the Washington Capitals for a 4-2 loss at FLA Live Arena in Sunrise.
Now down 1-0 in the series, Florida still has not led in a postseason series since 2012 and hasn’t won the first game of a series since 1997.
For these Panthers, the first game of the Stanley Cup playoffs was uncharacteristic. The Capitals outshot them 38-32 and finished with a 30-23 edge in scoring chances.
In the regular season, Florida was 39-0 when leading after two periods. Now, in the playoffs, the Panthers are 0-1.
It came after a comeback, too. Florida fell behind 1-0 in the first four minutes on a power-play goal by All-Star left wing Tom Wilson. The Panthers had to be resilient — Wilson’s goal came at the last possible moment after they killed off 1:01 of a 5-on-3 and nearly two more 5-on-4 minutes — and they were for most of the game. Forward Sam Bennett scored a game-tying goal with 2:05 left in the first period when he found a seam between a pair of defenders and fired a wrister past Washington goaltender Vitek Vanecek on the rush, and versatile All-Star forward Claude Giroux gave them a 2-1 lead in the first minute of the first period when he knocked home a rebound off a shot by star defenseman MacKenzie Weegar. Although the Capitals outshot Florida in each of the first two periods, Bobrovsky kept the Panthers ahead by stopping 30 of the 31 shots he faced.
In the third, Florida unraveled. It started with a giveaway near the blue line by Weegar. Superstar left wing Alex Ovechkin knocked Weegar off his feet and created a breakaway for Washington center Evgeny Kuznetsov, who buried his own game-tying goal with 11:46 left. A little more than two minutes later, T.J. Oshie deflected in a pass from fellow Capitals forward Nicklas Backstrom in transition and Washington went up 3-2 with 9:23 left.
The Panthers outshot the Capitals, 12-5, in the third period, but now find themselves behind in a first-round series once again.
Florida has not won a postseason series since it reached the 1996 Stanley Cup Final and the track record for Presidents’ Trophy-winning teams isn’t much better: The team with the best record in the regular season hasn’t won the Stanley Cup since 2013 and four of those teams have lost in the first round in the last 20 years.
The Panthers are fighting against history and now against another first-round deficit.
