In Washington, DC, Carter Verhaeghe scored with less than three minutes gone in extra time on Friday night to get the Florida Panthers into the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. 
“It feels amazing,” the Panthers’ Aleksander Barkov said. “For a little while it felt like, what’s happening right now? During my nine-year career here, I haven’t been to the second round or past the first round, so it feels great. But at the same time, I know there’s a lot of work to do. Right now, I enjoy this and get back to work tomorrow or whenever.”
He goal gave the Panthers a 4-3 win over the Capitals, and win the series, 4-2.
T.J. Oshie scored a power play goal with 63 seconds left in regulation to get the Caps even at 3-3 and force the extra session.
“To give up a late goal, those are heartbreaking moments,” Panthers coach Andrew Brunette said. “They could really affect you. It could kill momentum, it could do a bunch of things and again we took the punch, we stood up and then we started punching back. That epitomizes what the whole season was.”
Sergei Bobrovsky made 34 saves in th4e Panthers win.
After a scoreless first period period, Nic Dowd staked the Caps to a 1-0 lead.
“I thought we did a lot of good things tonight, a lot of the right things, trying to hold them and bay and still able to generate,” Capitals coach Peter Laviolette said. “We just couldn’t get it done. We had the lead 2-1, we kicked it up. Had to fight back. It was a huge effort at the end of the third to tie it up. We couldn’t just close it out.”
Ryan Lomberg tied the game less than three minutes later, 1-1.
In the third period, Nicklas Backstrom put the Caps up, 2-1, early in the frame.
“That’s obviously part of the things that you’ve got to do to be successful in the playoffs. You have to shut down teams,” Backstrom said. “I don’t know what else to say. It’s obviously on us. It’s disappointing.”
The Panthers responded with goals from Claude Giroux and Barkov for a 3-2 lead.
“Obviously, when they tie it up, maybe some guys are down a little bit. I was probably one of them,” Giroux said. “But the mood was great. Guys were excited. Guys had a feeling that if we play our game, we’re going to get our chances and we’ll be able to score.”
Ilya Samsonov made 27 saves. in the Caps loss.
“The last three games have been in our hands at some point in the third, or some point in the game, anyways. We were unable to capitalize on all those opportunities,” Oshie said. “Not a lot of time has passed, so there’s still some reflection to do. But super proud of the way the guys have battled all year, and this series is no different.”
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