SUNRISE, Fla. — If the Florida Panthers couldn’t see an awful end approaching, the desperate fans packed inside FLA Live Arena on Thursday certainly could, groaning at every misplayed puck and blown power-play chance for more than 15 minutes in the first period until, finally, there was relief. Later, there were even chants of, “We want 10!”
It started with a lucky bounce and then the old Panthers — at least for one badly needed night — were back. A point shot by Aaron Ekblad bounced off a Washington Capital and past Vitek Vanecek to put Florida ahead. A little more than a minute later, Jonathan Huberdeau danced his way through the Capitals’ defense and teed up Aleksander Barkov for another. It was the Panthers’ first two-goal lead of the series and the start they needed to run away for a 5-1 win in Game 2 in Sunrise.
With the first-round series now even at 1-1, Florida will still need to steal a game on the road at some point in the first round, but the Panthers are guaranteed at least one more game back in Florida next week despite a pair of often-uninspiring performances to open the 2022 Stanley Cup playoffs.
In Game 1, the Capitals outshot the Panthers, 38-32, and the first 15 minutes or so of Game 2 were even uglier. Florida didn’t put its third shot on goal until 5:25 remained in the second period — it was a shot from the neutral zone by defenseman Ben Chiarot, drawing sarcastic cheers from the crowd — and Washington at one point had a 15-7 edge in shots on goal.
Those seven shots for Florida, however, yielded three goals. Goaltending was a weakness for the eighth-seeded Capitals all season and the Panthers took advantage of it to perhaps save their season.
Florida — the winner of the Presidents’ Trophy after the best regular season in franchise history — was not happy with almost anything about its offensive performance in Game 1 on Tuesday and the same issues persisted into Game 2. Washington stuck four or five players in the neutral zone every time the Panthers got the puck to counter Florida’s rush game and cleared the puck out of its own defensive zone quickly to counter its aggressive forecheck.
With 3:40 left in the first period, Florida finally caught a break and then it took off. The Panthers scored five goals in 21:12 to take a 5-1 lead and prompt chants of, “We want 10” — a signature in South Florida in the regular season as the Panthers led the NHL with 37 home wins and 4.11 goals per game.
On the first, Ekblad wound up with the puck all alone near the right point and waited a bit too long to shoot. The hesitation paid off, though: The star defenseman’s slap shot hit off the knee of Capitals forward T.J. Oshie and bounced strangely past Vanecek with 3:40 left in the opening period. It was Ekblad’s first career playoff goal and gave Florida its second lead of the series.
It took 98 more seconds for the Panthers to get their first two-goal lead. Jonathan Huberdeau started at the right faceoff circle and juked his way past Washington center Nicklas Backstrom to get down toward the goal line. When star defenseman John Carlson dropped to his knees to try to block a potential shot and cut off a passing lane, Huberdeau kept going and found a lane to set up Barkov for a tap-in goal on the opposite doorstep.
Ekblad, Huberdeau and Barkov — the three franchise players and a trio of former top-three picks — delivered when Florida needed them most.
At the time, the Capitals had held Florida to just five shots on goal, yet the Panthers — with the highest scoring offense the league has seen in more than 25 years — got some of the breaks they needed, and some clutch plays from their three franchise players, to get back into a first-round series on the verge of slipping away.
In the second period, they finally got the sort of offensive eruption they were used to. After Backstrom scored on a power play in the opening three minutes of the period to cut Florida’s lead to 2-1, winger Mason Marchment answered 27 seconds later at the end of a tic-tac-toe passing play to put the Panthers back ahead 3-1.
In the second period, Backstrom scored on a power play in the opening three minutes, but the Panthers quickly answered when winger Mason Marchment scored at the end of a tic-tac-toe passing play 27 seconds later to put Florida back up 3-1. The Panthers survived a four-minute power play in the middle of the period to keep the two-goal lead, and centers Anton Lundell and Carter Verhaeghe both scored in the final five minutes to blow away the Capitals, and send Vanecek to the bench for the third.
The best signs yet came in a mostly meaningless final period. Florida dominated Washington in the third, outshooting the Capitals by double figures.
It took more than four periods, but the Panthers finally looked like themselves again.
