In Sunrise, the Florida Panthers blew a 3-0 lead to the Columbus Jackets on Monday to find themselves trailing 4-3 in the waning minutes of the third. 
Nick Cousins rescued the Panthers a tying goal with 57 seconds left on the regulation clock.
“It was a fortunate play in which the guy tried to clear it and it kind of went off me and I was able to make a play,” Cousins said. “I thought we had a strong first period, but when they switched goalies it switched momentum in their favor. Give them credit; they turned the page and took it to us for a while. But this is a big two points for us.”
Carter Verhaeghe then completed the rally with the game-winner in extra time for the 5-4 win.
“It felt good,” Verhaeghe said. “[It’s] nice to get to the win, but it is not the way you draw it up. It started off good, we let them back in it. But there are no bad wins.”
Sergei Bobrovsky made 18 saves in the win.
The Panthers improved to 6-4-1.
“It was an interesting game,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “We were dominant in the first period, for sure, but I think where it turned was they blocked 12 shots in the second after only three in the first. We stopped moving our feet, had the shots blocked and started feeling that we had a 3-0 lead. There was very little going against us, and then the breaks weren’t going for us.’’
After the Panthers took a 3-0 lead in the first period, Columbus started their rally with Sean Kuraly scoring at 15:41; Boone Jenner trimmed it to 3-2 at 18:51 of the first .
Kirill Marchenko scored off the power play midway through the second period to tie the game, 3-3, fr Columbus.
“It was a big point, but right now, we want that second one for sure,” Columbus’ Erik Gudbranson said. “We had some really hard times in the beginning of the game and came together as a group against a good hockey team. We just had to put it away.”
Columbus took the lead at 12:30 of the middle frame on a marker form Alexandre Texier.
“The first 10 minutes, we were just watching the other team,” Columbus coach Pascal Vincent said. “We were just trying to contain and maintain, and that’s not our style of play. We need to be aggressive, winning 1-on-1 battles. We didn’t win any races, we didn’t win any 1-on-1s.”
The Panthers jumped out early and often in the first period. The outburst lasted for the first six minutes of the game.
“They were obviously bringing it to us in the first period, and I just had to do my job,” Martin said. “I have the best job in the world and am never upset to get in there. There are some nerves; it is hard to calm down at first. But there were some early shots and I felt good.”
Ryan Lomberg opened the scoring to give the Panthers a 1-0 lead at at 2:19.
Gustav Forsling pushed the advantage to 2-0 just 40 seconds later.
Aleksander Barkov ballooned the lead to 3-0 at 6:09,
Columbus dropped to 4-5-3.
“There were different kinds of emotions during the game, but you crawl your way back into the game and [make] one mistake and then you’re in overtime,” Vincent said. “It’s frustrating. It’s disappointing for the guys because we expected a storm early in the game after Florida lost in Chicago (5-2 on Saturday). Maybe not that kind of push, but it was a hard push and we didn’t manage it well. But we got back into it.”
Elvis Merzlikins got the start for the Blue Jackets, and yielded three goals while making eight saves before getting the hook.
Spencer Martin relieved Merzlikins and made 34 saves.
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