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Heartbreak city as Florida caps off late comeback: Panthers beat Capitals 3-2 (OT)

By Chris Cerullo

 4 Comments

May 9, 2022 10:02 pm

Game Four and the Washington Capitals had the chance to put the Florida Panthers in all sorts of bother if they could pull off another win on home ice. Playoff hockey, baby.

TJ Oshie opened the scoring with another deflection in front. Carter Verhaeghe tied things up on a two-on-one rush with Aaron Ekblad. Nada in the second. Evgeny Kuznetsov let the bird fly and gave the Caps a third period lead. Sam Reinhart tied the game with the goaltender pulled very late.

Verhaeghe again in overtime.

Panthers beat Capitals 3-2. Series now tied 2-2.

  • I liked the first half of the first period for the Caps but then some poor decisions started to get made with the puck and they let the Panthers back in a little bit. Too much east-west, not enough north-south.
  • Someone needs to teach some of these guys that they need to shoot the puck on breakaways. Bobrovsky was not good on Saturday. Test him.
  • I cannot stand when officials bail out teams that keep taking horrible penalties just because they keep doing it and “game management” is a thing. The refs didn’t call an obvious trip on Florida because it would have given the Caps three straight calls to start the game and then the Panthers scored only a few moments later. Infuriating.

  • That second period was atrocious. Thank the hockey gods for Ilya Samsonov. The refs didn’t help but the Caps just did not have any rhythm whatsoever at five-on-five.
  • Someone ban fancy drop passes. Please. For my health.
  • The power play was horrendous after they scored on their first chance. They dumped the puck in on a five-on-three and didn’t get set up a single time. Lord.
  • Nic Dowd and John Carlson both took pucks straight to the grill and bled their own blood. Ouch.

  • The Caps almost survived that third. Almost.
  • I think TJ Oshie might be sitting the next one out. I would be absolutely irate if I was a Florida fan after that hit went uncalled. Tough call to make but woof.
  • Oh man, that Marcus Johansson breakaway and Garnet Hathaway empty net attempt really hurt right now.

Game Five is back in Florida on Wednesday with a 7:30 PM start.

Headline photo courtesy of @RobbieMartin3/Twitter

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