The Florida Panthers spoke in cliches and hyperbole in the lead-up to their matchup with the Washington Capitals on Thursday. Radko Gudas called it “the biggest game of the season” on Tuesday. Carter Verhaeghe on Tuesday said it would be “like a playoff game.” It’s what a game like this one — with only a few dozen games left in the regular season, and the Panthers and Capitals separated by mere percentage points in the standings — engendered.
Amid all the hype, Florida delivered in Washington. The Panthers manhandledbuilt a big early lead and hung on to beat the Capitals, 6-3. They led almost wire-to-wire and were doubling up Washington in shots into the second period.
For the first time in months, Florida is in close to complete control of its postseason destiny, tied with the Capitals for the second wild card. Although it still trails Washington in points percentage, Florida has one game left against the Capitals in April, again on the road.
The Panthers also have two games remaining with the Buffalo Sabres and one left with the Detroit Red Wings, both of whom have a better points percentage, but have played fewer games.
Washington, which Florida faced in the first round of the 2022 Stanley Cup playoffs last year, is the perhaps the Panthers’ fiercest competition, though. The Capitals are battle-tested, with several players left from their 2018 Stanley Cup-winning team, and talented and yet Florida established its superiority.
Gustav Forsling put the Panthers up 1-0 with 10:50 left in the first period and Florida led the rest of the way. Fellow defenseman Marc Staal pushed the lead to 2-0 with 18:28 left in the second period on his first goal of the season and forward Colin White made it 3-0 less than six minutes later. Florida played the final 37:17 of the final 38:28 with a multi-goal lead and led by three for more than 28 minutes.
Washington briefly gave Capital One Arena a bit of life when Washington forward T.J. Oshie scored to cut the Panthers’ lead to 3-1 with 4:09 left in the second period, but All-Star center Aleksander Barkov answered to nudge the lead back to 4-1 just 72 seconds later.
It was a complete performance for Florida. The first three goals came from two defensemen and a frequently scratched forward, only in the lineup because of an injury to center Sam Bennett. The fourth came from perhaps the Panthers’ best player and on a no-look shot. Star goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky gave Florida 27 saves to continue his hot streak.
Florida has now won 12 of 20 and picked up points in 14 of 20. Bobrovsky has a .925 save percentage, 2.53 goals against average and won 8 of 11 in the same stretch.
Although the stakes were high for their showdown, both the Panthers and Capitals entered the day short-handed. Bennett went down with an injury in the second period of a blowout loss to the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday, leaving Florida without its usual second-line center, and superstar Alex Ovechkin was away from Washington following the death of his father.
After trading lifeless power plays with the Capitals in the opening minutes, Florida finally broke through in the middle of the first period when Forsling moved uncovered up to the left faceoff circle and ripped the go-ahead goal past Washington goaltender Darcy Kuemper off a primary assist by forward Eetu Luostarinen. It gave the Panthers an early stab of energy, but it was an unlikely goal in the second that really sparked the runaway.
Early in the second, Staal finally saw a shooting lane from the point and took it. His slap shot traveled through a bit of traffic and past Kuemper, and Matthew Tkachuk, who was perched on the doorstep, literally jumped for joy. The All-Star right wing pointed right at Staal to let everyone know he didn’t touch the puck on its way into the net and then everyone on the ice mobbed the 36-year-old Canadian to celebrate his first goal for Florida.
The Panthers never led by less than two the rest of the way and they quickly quashed Washington’s one moment of moment late in the period.
In a game full of unlikely goal-scorers, Florida’s captain was the one to ultimately bury the Capitals.
About a minute after Washington cut the Panthers’ lead to 3-1, Barkov led a 2-on-1 down the right side of the ice. The star forward turned his head to look at Grigori Denisenko and force everyone else to pay attention to the left wing, too, and then, without ever looking back at the net, he zipped a shot past Kuemper to rebuild Florida’s three-goal cushion.
The Panthers needed every one of them. The Capitals scored a pair of power-play goals in the final five minutes and were within one with 2:32 to go before two empty-net goals in the final 1:21 locked up the win.
