Panthers tie it late, defeat Capitals in OT

SUNRISE, Fla. -- Gustav Forsling scored with 1:19 remaining in overtime to give the Florida Panthers a 3-2 win against the Washington Capitals at Amerant Bank Arena on Saturday.

Forsling scored on a slap shot from the right face-off circle off a pass from Sam Bennett, who started the play by stealing the puck in Florida's zone.

“I saw Bennett grab the puck, and that was my first shift in overtime, so I had fresh legs,” Forsling said. “Bennett made an unreal pass.”

Aleksander Barkov tied it 2-2 on the power play at 16:30 of the third period after tipping a wrist shot through traffic from Carter Verhaeghe.

“We just wanted one and our power play had not been sharp up until then,” Verhaeghe said. “It was a big goal. We pushed it to overtime, and you never know what can happen there. It was nice.”

Nick Cousins scored, and Anthony Stolarz made 22 saves for the Panthers (38-16-4), who have won seven of eight and have allowed two goals or fewer in each of their past 13.

“We got good goaltending, our penalty kill has been outstanding,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “Although we didn’t get it done on the PK tonight, that’s OK.”

Sonny Milano and Tom Wilson each scored a power-play goal for the Capitals (26-21-9), who went 2-for-4 with the man-advantage but had their three-game winning streak end. Charlie Lindgren made 26 saves.

“It felt like we could have won that game,” Wilson said. “The guys battled hard and executed well for the most part. There were a couple of things which ended up being the difference. It’s tight right now, playoff-type of hockey. You have to come up with those little things to push it our way. [Florida] did a little bit more and got it done.”

Alex Ovechkin had a 10-game point streak end in his 1,400th NHL game. He became the 41st player to reach the mark and the 10th to do it with one team.

Florida took a 1-0 lead at 4:03 of the second period when Cousins deflected a point shot from Dmitry Kulikov that rolled past Lindgren.

Washington tied it 1-1 on a tic-tac-toe passing play at 18:31. Milano passed to Max Pacioretty, who fed Rasmus Sandin with a crossing pass in the left circle, where he found Milano for the finish near the right post.

That ended Stolarz’s shutout streak at 115:54 dating to the third period of a 2-1 home loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Feb. 6. He was coming off a 45-save shutout in a 4-0 win at the Buffalo Sabres on Feb. 15.

“If you look at the way we play, you see we like defensive structure,” Stolarz said. “With that in mind, [Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky] and I know you have to make big saves. Lindgren played a great game tonight. When you see him down there making big saves, you know you have to step up your game.”

Wilson put Washington in front 2-1 at 10:11 of the third. Dylan Strome’s pass from beyond red line banked off the end boards, and Wilson gathered the puck and scored with a backhand in front.

“The ending was tough because we did a lot of good things through the game,” Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said. “There was not much going on either way, but both teams are very structured, so there were not a lot of grade A chances on either side.”

NOTES: The Panthers were without forwards Matthew Tkachuk (upper body, day-to-day) and Kevin Stenlund (illness). … Florida won for the third time this season when scoring a tying goal in the final four minutes of the third period. … Capitals forward Pierrick Dube had no shots on goal and played 4:36 in his NHL debut.