Sam Reinhart reeled in a cross-ice pass from Aleksander Barkov and beat Darcy Kuemper fifteen seconds into overtime to give the Florida Panthers a 4-3 win over the Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena.
After Evan Rodrigues snapped a long pass off to Barkov at center ice, his subsequent cross bounced off the right boards and onto Reinhart’s blade and he broke in on Kuemper before chipping the puck over his glove for his ninth goal of the season.
Florida erased two Washington leads during the game to up their record to 7-4-1.
The blue-clad home side opened the scoring at 10:42 of the first period when Anthony Mantha was looking for Aliaksei Protas and his pass deflected off the stick of Anton Lundell instead. The puck found its way through the five-hole of Sergei Bobrovsky, with Protas and Kuemper credited with the assists.
Oliver Ekman-Larsson evened it up 2:07 later when he took a feed from Matthew Tkachuk and let go off a perfectly placed shot that found space between Kuemper’s blocker and leg pad. Lundell collected the secondary helper for getting the puck to Tkachuk behind the net.
Aleksander Barkov would the put the Cats on top with 3:15 left in the frame when he took a sweet backhand pass from Reinhart and quickly drove a shot past Kuemper from the left circle. That’s points in eleven straight games versus the Capitals for Barkov.
Florida only got one power-play chance in the game and they made the worst of it by allowing the Capitals to break out of their own zone with speed and Protas to set up Connor McMichael, with the second assist going to Martin Fehervary, for a shorthanded strike 6:13 into the second period.
Feasting off a turnover by Mike Reilly, the Capitals retook the lead with Mantha getting his second of the night conventionally at 15:51 by finishing off a pass from McMichael on a 2-on-1 break.
The Panthers tied the tilt with the third period’s only goal. After playing catch with Ekman-Larsson, Gustav Forsling delivered a gorgeous back door pass to Rodrigues, who guided it into the open net at the 3:33 mark. Just a beautiful set play triggered by a Barkov win in the left dot.
Bobrovksy would stop all ten Washington shots in the final frame to set the stage for Reinhart heroics, which gave the Panthers a second straight overtime win, vaulting them into third place in the Atlantic Division.
Stars & Stripes
- Florida’s first line of Aleksander Barkov, Sam Reinhart and Evan Rodrigues each finished the game with a goal and assist. They efficiently crafted those three goals out of just four shots.
- Reinhart’s goal supplanted Aaron Ekblad’s (16 seconds in a 3-2 win against the Carolina Hurricanes on February 16, 2022) as the fastest overtime goal in franchise history
- Oliver Ekman-Larsson also had a goal and assist, scoring on his only shot, while playing 23:53. OEL is already up to three goals. He had two in 54 games last season.
- Anthony Mantha had just one goal on the season before potting a pair against the Cats. He left at 12:13 of the third after a shot by Evgeny Kuznetsov deflected up and hit him in the coconut.
- Sergei Bobrovksy made 25 saves to collect his sixth win. Darcy Kuemper fell to 3-3-2 while stopping 21 shots.
- For the sadder side of last night’s result, stop by Japers’ Rink.