In a game full of offense Friday night in Washington, DC, the Florida Panthers found their way to their first win of the season, 6-5, over the Capitals in overtime.
The Caps did not make it easy for the Panthers as Nicklas Backstrom struck on a power play and an extra attacker to knot the score at 5-5 with less than 90 seconds left in regulation.
Jonathan Huberdeau scored the deciding goal in the skills competition for the win.
Michael Hutchinson got the win for the Panthers on saves and a solid shootout effort.
James Reimer was the starting goalie for the Panthers but was yanked in the middle frame.
After taking a 4-1 lead into the second period, the Panthers gave up three straight to the Caps to tie it at 4-4.
“We talked about the [6-5 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday]. It’s almost a replica of the second period in Philly, and how are we going to handle the third now? What are we going to do to show some maturity in our game and take the next step as a hockey club? There was some good things in the third period,” Panthers head coach Bob Boughner said after the game. “That snowball effect again. We got rolling and shot ourselves in the foot a little bit. But we found a way to win tonight.”
Brett Connolly, Jakub Vrana, John Carlson, and Devante Smith-Pelly scored for the Caps in regulation.
“To expect that it starts in that same spot, it’s not really I think all that achievable. The emotional commitment and obviously the heightened intensity of the games by both teams, it’s a tough one to match,” Capitals head coach Todd Reirden said. “[Stanley Cup Final] Game 7, as much as you try to channel that energy and push it in the right direction, it isn’t. It’s not playoff hockey. But like I said, you have to be ready to go every night. Otherwise this league’s too good.”
Vincent Trocheck, Evgenii Dadonov, Aleksander Barkov, Colton Sceviour, and Jared McCann scored for the Panthers.
“It happened to us again in the second period,” Barkov said. “We started making mistakes and we didn’t play the right way and we were losing pucks. But we battled back and the goalies kept us in the game and we score a couple goals and finally we won in a shootout. That shows how good of a team we are.”
[WATCH:Â All Panthers vs. Capitals highlights]
Braden Holtby got the start for the Capitals but was given the hook after surrendering four goals on just 11 shots in the first period.
“Even though it might not have looked that bad, we were still not quite there maybe emotionally,” Washington center Lars Eller said.”[Holtby] makes the first save on every goal except the power-play goal. We’ve got to help him out better there and be on those second chances. … Correct the bad stuff and just move on.”
Pheonix Copley relieved Holtby after the first intermission.
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