Panthers rebound in Game 2, defeat Capitals to even series

SUNRISE, Fla. -- Aleksander Barkov and Carter Verhaeghe each had a goal and an assist, and the Florida Panthers defeated the Washington Capitals 5-1 in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference First Round at FLA Live Arena on Thursday.

The best-of-7 series is tied 1-1. Game 3 will be at Washington on Saturday.
"A couple nights ago, I didn't think it was the effort," Panthers coach Andrew Brunette said. "It was just a little bit of the focus, and I think we got a little bit ahead of ourselves and kind of got nervous maybe a little bit and we kind of got out of our rhythm of how we want to play. I thought tonight, early on we weren't sharp as we'd like to be, but I think we grinded it out, and that's a really good building block for our group."

Aaron Ekblad, Mason Marchment and Anton Lundell scored for Florida, which earned the Presidents' Trophy for the best regular-season record in the NHL. Sergei Bobrovsky made 26 saves.
Nicklas Backstrom scored for the Capitals, the second wild card in the East. Vitek Vanecek was pulled after the second period after giving up five goals on 19 shots. Ilya Samsonov made 17 saves in the third period.
"I think we all need to realize that everything matters in the [Stanley Cup] Playoffs," Backstrom said. "The margins are small, but we've got to be a little bit sharper and make sure we take care of that puck. Overall, our execution wasn't there tonight."
Florida led 2-0 after the first period despite being outshot 11-7.
Ekblad gave the Panthers a 1-0 lead at 16:20 when his shot from the top of the right circle hit defenseman Martin Fehervary, bounced high off the ice and over Vanecek's shoulder. It was Ekblad's first goal in 12 playoff games.
Barkov made it 2-0 at 17:58 when he redirected Jonathan Huberdeau's pass across the crease.
"It's nice to win," Barkov said. "That's all we want to do. Obviously, we didn't play the right way in the first game and this game we kept building. We got better once the game went on and 'Bob' kept us in the game, gave us a chance to win, and then we kept building and got better as the game went on. So now the series is even and we're ready to go."

Backstrom cut Florida's lead to 2-1 with a power-play goal at 2:44 of the second period with a shot from a sharp angle.
Marchment scored 27 seconds later to make it 3-1 at 3:11 with a shot that went five-hole.
After the Panthers killed off a double-minor penalty on Marchment, Lundell made it 4-1 at 15:24 before Verhaeghe made it 5-1 at 17:32 with a wrist shot from the high slot.
"Coming out of the way we played the first period, I thought we did just about everything right and we're down 2-0," Capitals coach Peter Laviolette said. "And then even the start of the second period I thought that we were doing the right things, and they get a third and a fourth, and then I thought our game unraveled from there the last probably seven minutes of the second period, and then the third period we didn't do anything.
"It was one of those games where the score goes to three and then four and it wasn't a reflection for me of the game. But after that, I don't like how we played when it was 4-1. That's the problem that I have with the game."
NOTES:Washington forward Tom Wilson missed the game with a lower-body injury he sustained in the first period of Game 1. Brett Leason, recalled from Hershey of the American Hockey League on Thursday, replaced Wilson in the lineup and played 8:17. … The five goals came one short of the Panthers' playoff record. They scored six goals in Game 1 of the 1996 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals, Game 2 of the 1996 Conference Quarterfinals and Game 3 of the 2021 Stanley Cup First Round. … Lundell (20 years, 214 days) became the third-youngest player to score a playoff goal in Panthers history, behind Radek Dvorak (19 years, 76 days; Game 3 of 1996 Conference Finals) and Ed Jovanovski (19 years, 301 days; Game 2 of 1996 Conference Quarterfinals).