The Florida Panthers got shredded 6-3 by the NHL-leading Washington Capitals in an ugly loss at Capital One Center. Florida finished its six-game road trip with a disappointing 2-4 record.
A wild first period ended in a 3-3 tie after the Capitals took the lead three times only to see the Panthers answer every goal.
A wide-open (and I mean WIDE-OPEN) Connor McMichael took a pass from Tom Wilson and easily finished off the breakaway to open the scoring 3:15 after opening puck drop.
The Panthers equalized 3:20 later when Gustav Forsling dumped the puck around the boards before heading off for a change and it got by Logan Thompson, ending up on the blade of Mackie Samoskevich on the opposite side. The rookie centered to Sam Bennett and he drove the puck into the vacated net for his 23rd of the season.
John Carlson put the Capitals back on top at 12:24 when his shot from the high slot deflected off Niko Mikkola’s skate past a helpless Vitek Vaněček. The assists on pretty passing play that led to the goal went to McMichael and Pierre-Luc Dubois.
It only took 1:12 for Seth Jones to reply to Carlson’s marker. Jones notched his first as a Panther by one-timing a pass from Sam Bennett, who collected the rebound of Evan Rodrigues’ sharp-angle shot before going back to the recently-acquired defenseman a the right point.
Anthony Beauvillier scored on a breakaway exactly one minute later to give the Capitals the lead back. After taking a pass from Trevor van Riemsdyk, Rasmus Sandin snapped a long outlet to Beauvillier, who blew by an out-of-position Tobias Björnfot before beating Vaněček on the forehand.
The Panthers shrugged off the second breakaway blow and equalized when Nico Sturm knocked the puck away off from Aliaksei Protas and then centered from behind the net to Johan Gadjovich, who fired the puck into the top corner of the net. It was Sturm’s first point since coming over from San Jose at the trade deadline.
Florida would lose the game thanks to an awful first minute of the second period.
Dubios won the opening faceoff back to Martin Fehervary, who crossed to Matt Roy. Forsling thought Roy was going to go down the boards with the puck and moved to his left, opening up a lane for Wilson, who took Roy’s pass and raced in on Vaněček, lightning the lamp at seven-second mark.
On the next shift, Dylan Strome redirected a pass from Alex Ovechkin, giving Washington a two-goal lead. Strome’s goal was his 68th point of the season, establishing a new career high for the 28-year-old center. Protas drew the secondary assist on the play.
Ovechkin picked up another assist at 5:57 when he combined with Fehervary to set up Andrew Mangiapane for tap-in goal to complete the scoring.
After surrendering three in goals in each of his last three periods of action, Vaněček stopped Washinton’s final 13 shots to keep things from getting even more embarrassing.
Thompson finished the game with 33 saves to backstop the Capitals to the season-series sweep. Washington won each game by three goals, outscoring the Cats 16-7.
The Panthers get right back at it tonight when they host the Pittsburgh Penguins. Thanks to some help from Utah and Nashville, the Cats will take to the ice still holding on to the top spot in the Atlantic Division.
Pittsburgh is playing much better as of late, so the depleted Panthers will need to tighten things up and get back to their game to avoid another loss.
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