In Washington, DC, the Florida Panthers breathed a collective sigh of relief when Carter Verhaeghe scored in extra time on Monday night to give them a 3-2 win over the Capitals in Game 4. 
“It was great,” Verhaeghe said. “I’m just happy we won the game and we can go back home in front of our home fans and compete again with the series tied. It’s a best-of-3 now. We have home-ice advantage again, so that’s the thing I think about most.”
It was Verhaeghe’s second goal of the game.
The win ties the series, 2-2.
“I thought that was our best effort. It looked like our team,” Florida coach Andrew Brunette said. “I thought we really executed with the puck. We had the puck, we didn’t just give it away. I think we’re building here a little bit, and that was a good step for us.”
Game 5 will be in Sunrise on Wednesday night.
Sergei Bobrovsky made 14 saves for the Panthers win.
The Panthers chased the game for the entire 60 minutes of regulation.
T.J. Oshie scored in the first period to give the Caps a 1-0 lead.
“The first half of the game was kind of mucked up by power plays and penalty kills and there wasn’t a lot of 5-on-5 time. Not many 5-on-5 chances,” Capitals coach Peter Laviolette said. “We gave up a little bit too much 4-on-4, but we pushed in the third period and got it to where we wanted.”
Verhaeghe tied it in the first period for the Panthers at 1-1.
Evgeny Kuznetsov put the Caps up, 2-1, with a third period goal.
“In third period, it was in our hands,” Kuznetsov said. “We’re going to play best-of-3 right now. There is no panic. Still have pretty good chance.”
Sam Reinhart made extra time necessary when he scored in the third period to get the game even at 2-2.
“There’s not much room out there to begin with, and they’re a team, they get the lead and it’s tough to come back,” Reinhart said. “It’s tough to find that room, especially when they’re defending that much harder trying to protect it. We were able to stick with it, and we got a bounce at the end. It’s a game of inches, and tonight proved it.”
Ilya Samsonov made 29 saves in the Caps loss.
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