On a sunny holiday afternoon in sunny South Florida, the Florida Panthers and the Anaheim Ducks were in a heated battle that featured a few scuffles, over 85 total shots on goals, and a comeback win for the Comeback Cats!
Both teams battled to the very end and the game needed an overtime period as the Panthers prevailed and took over the first wild card spot in the Eastern Conference.
Recap
The game started out very rough and very slow for the Panthers as they allowed two goals in the first period after the ten minute mark.
Ducks forward Mason McTavish got the scoring party started and former Florida Panther Frank Vatrano also put the puck in the net past Panthers starting goalie Sergei Bobrovsky after a Florida penalty, resulting in a power play goal for the Ducks and a commanding 2-0 lead after the first.
However, the Panthers channeled their inner comeback ways and in the second period the Staal brothers took over and tied the game at two.
The first was scored by the older brother and prolific scorer Eric Staal and the second was scored by younger brother Marc Staal as he crashed to the net and tipped the puck in past Ducks goaltender John Gibson.
The third period was back and forth with lots of twists and turns and even more scuffles.
The Ducks scored with just 7:09 left on the clock and the Panthers fans were left silent and feeling nervous. Low and behold, Panthers hustle man and savior Ryan Lomberg had a fantastic tip in front of the net to get by Gibson and tie the game up at three.
We headed to overtime and in under two minutes, Carter Verhaeghe was on a breakaway all by himself and he scored the game-winning goal past Gibson and the Panthers bench jumped onto the ice and into Verhaeghe as the Panthers won in overtime 4-3 in an unbelievably exciting game.
A big shoutout to Ducks goaltender John Gibson; he recorded 50 total saves and tried to keep his team in the game every second he was on the ice till the very end.
Up Next
The Panthers will have an abundance of home games coming up as eight of their next nine games are at home.
The only road game during this stretch will be on Tuesday, February 28th versus the rival Tampa Bay Lightning.