The Florida Panthers have known for a long time they would be going to the 2022 Stanley Cup playoffs. It’s why they always talk about the “bigger prize,” as Andrew Brunette put it Thursday, rather than lingering too much the many milestones they’ve hit along the way this year.
They have spent most of the season as the top team in the Eastern Conference and virtually the entire year in first place in the Atlantic Division. Their goal is the Stanley Cup — anything less will leave them disappointed when the season ends — so there was no extra celebration on the ice when the Panthers finished off their 5-3 win against the Buffalo Sabres on Sunday to become the first team this season to clinch a postseason spot.
Still, it’s not something Florida (48-15-6) should take for granted, especially given where this team was not so long ago. For only the eighth time in their 29-year history, the Panthers are headed to the Stanley Cup playoffs and they did it by setting a single-season franchise record for wins and getting a game-tying goal from Jonathan Huberdeau, which gave him a single-season franchise-record 97th point.
Now comes the hard part. For the rest of April, Florida will try to hold on to its nine-point lead in the Atlantic, fend off the Carolina Hurricanes for the top spot in the East and chase down the Colorado Avalanche to win the Presidents’ Trophy, and then in May they’ll begin their quest for the Cup.
The Panthers, who now lead the Hurricanes by four points and trail the Avalanche by two, have not won a postseason series since the they reached the 1996 Stanley Cup Finals in only their third season of existence. It was Florida’s first ever trip to the Cup playoffs and the Panthers have gone one-and-done in each of their six trips since — including a six-game exit in the qualifying round of the expanded 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs — while winning just nine games total.
Florida has never had a team quite like this one, though. In the last week, the Panthers have set single-season franchise records for wins, home wins and goals and they can clinch the single-season franchise record for points Tuesday when they return to Sunrise to face the Toronto Maple Leafs. If it can stay near its current pace of 4.15 goals per game, Florida will be the first team to average at least four goals per game since the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 1995-96 NHL season.
On Thursday, Huberdeau set an NHL record for assists in a season by a left wing and then he broke star center Aleksander Barkov’s franchise record for points in a single season in the second period Sunday. On Saturday, the Panthers pulled off a historic four-goal, third-period comeback — only the 20th in league history — to tie a single-season NHL record for three-goal comebacks and crack the 100-point mark for only the second time in team history.
They actually needed another come-from-behind win Sunday — their 22nd of the season — to beat the Sabres (25-34-11) in Buffalo. Florida fell behind 1-0 in the first period, then ripped off four in a row to fend off the Sabres, even after a couple third-period goals energized the crowd of 11,787 at the KeyBank Center. After getting outshot 10-9 in the first period, the Panthers outshot the Sabres, 30-20, for the final two, and finished with a 30-21 edge in scoring chances and 18-7 edge in high-danger chances. Winger Anthony Duclair scored twice in the second and third periods, and rookie center Anton Lundell — in just his second game back after he missed 11 in a row with a lower-body injury — also found the back of the net for the go-ahead goal in the second period.
The comeback began, however, with Huberdeau. The All-Star winger, who leads the NHL with 73 assists, skated to the middle of the offensive zone after a giveaway by Buffalo let Claude Giroux carry the puck down the right-hand boards with little resistance. The All-Star forward skated toward the net and drew a defender his way, then made a centering pass to tee up Huberdeau for a game-tying one-timer with 13:42 left in the second.
Florida never trailed again. Lundell scored with 4:05 left in the second period to put the Panthers ahead for good and Duclair scored his first 1:06 later to give Florida a two-goal cushion.
Duclair scored again in the first minute of the third period and it was enough to keep the Sabres at bay, even after they scored two power-play goals in 1:54 to cut the Panthers’ lead down to 4-3 with 9:41 remaining.
