As they have done many times late in the regular season, the Florida Panthers came from behind to defeat the Washington Capitals 5-3 on Wednesday night in Game 5 of their first-round series. at FLA Live Arena.
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The Presidents’ Trophy holders took a serious option on the next round by grabbing the driver’s seat. Ahead 3-2, they will have a first opportunity to send the “Caps” on vacation on Friday, at Capital One Arena.
T.J. Oshie hit the target twice in the first half after teammate Justin Schultz opened the scoring to give the visitors a 3-0 lead after 24 minutes. That’s when Carter Verhaeghe stepped into gear, carrying the Panthers on his shoulders as he participated in each of his five unanswered goals.
With his fourth and fifth wins of the spring schedule, the 26-year-old forward set a Panthers record for most goals in a playoff round. He is also only the fourth player to amass three points in one span in franchise history.
Well positioned near the net, Verhaeghe had scored the first of the “Cats” 6 min 50 s from the second engagement. Patric Hornqvist had pulled one back six minutes later, before Sam Reinhart tied the game before the end of the period.
In the third period, Verhaeghe scored his second by accepting with great speed the surrender of captain Aleksander Barkov. He completed his dream match by partnering with Claude Giroux – who served a cup of coffee to Ilya Samsonov – to bring his total in this meeting to five points.
The Russian doorman had held firm in the face of repeated attacks from the Panthers, notably facing 30 shots in the first 40 minutes. Samsonov finished with 33 saves. On the other side, his compatriot Sergei Bobrovsky recovered after a difficult start and he finished with 28 parries on 31 shots.
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