RECAP: Panthers 4, Hurricanes 3 (SO)

SUNRISE, Fla. – You don’t see that every day.

Well, if you’re the Florida Panthers, you’ve actually never seen that until today.

Erasing a three-goal deficit with less than 10 minutes left to win a game for the first time in their 32-year history, the Panthers came from behind to stun the Metropolitan Division-leading Carolina Hurricanes in a thrilling 4-3 shootout win at Amerant Bank Arena on Friday.

“Belief is where it starts,” forward Brad Marchand said. “We knew we needed one [goal], and then anything can happen. We’ve scored three goals in 10 minutes before, and we knew we could do it again. It doesn’t take much for this group to produce.”

Winners in seven of their last eight games, Panthers, who’ve lost a wealth of key players due to injuries this season, now sit in second place in the Atlantic Division at 19-13-2.

“There’s no quit in this locker room,” forward Sam Bennett said.

Despite the Panthers applying most of the pressure early, the Hurricanes broke the ice in the first period when Jordan Staal fired a rebound past Sergei Bobrovsky to make it 1-0.

A solid start despite the score, the Panthers led 13-9 in scoring chances in the first frame.

“I liked the first period an awful lot,” head coach Paul Maurice said.

In the second period, neither team touched the twine.

Doing everything but score, the Panthers generated multiple quality looks but were unable to get anything past Hurricanes goaltender Brandon Bussi in the middle frame. Entering the tonight’s tilt with an 11-1-0 record, Bussi was claimed off waivers from Florida in October.

Steady between the pipes, Bussi bookended the second period with big saves. After denying Bennett on a drive to the net early in the period, he flashed leather to rob Aaron Ekblad on a wrist shot from the slot to keep the Panthers off the board later on.

At 15:02 of the second period, the Hurricanes had a goal taken off the board due to a kick.

“That was a great call,” Bobrovsky said of the officials' review.

Managing to slip through what had been a stalwart defense for the Panthers for the vast majority of the game, the Hurricanes ended up still doubling their lead early in the third period when Sebastian Aho went five-hole on a breakaway to make it 2-0 at 1:27.

Sent to the power play after a questionable call against the Panthers, the Hurricanes took their newfound momentum and turned it into another goal when – after Bobrovsky made a huge initial stop on Andrei Svechnikov – Aho buried the rebound to make it 3-0 at 7:34.

Spoiling Bussi’s shutout bid and igniting the comeback, Marchand scored to cut Florida’s deficit to 3-1 at 10:16.

Off to an outstanding start at 37 years old, the goal was his team-leading 20^th of the season.

“Marchy, as he always does, we’re down three and he’s screaming, ‘We can do this!’” Maurice said. “Then he scores the first goal, and that was really the big one that kind of gave us some life. It almost takes some pressure of you at that point.”

Pulling Bobrovsky for the extra attacker, the Panthers cut their deficit to just one goal late in regulation when Bennett fired a rebound past Bussi to make it 3-2 with 2:25 remaining.

With the net empty again soon after, Anton Lundell came up with a game-saving play on defense for the Panthers when he picked Svechnikov’s pocket in a 1-on-1 battle just as the Hurricanes forward was entering the offensive zone and staring down the exposed cage.

“He saved the game,” Marchand said. “Obviously, Svechnikov is a great player than can easily make a move on a D-man and get a shot on net with that much space. He completely saved the game there. Made a great play there, and then we went and scored right after.”

As he’s done so many times before for the Panthers, Sam Reinhart played the role of hero with less than a minute remaining regulation when he fired a shot from his usual spot in the slot that caught just a piece of Bussi before trickling across the line to make it 3-3 at 19:18.

Powder meet keg.

“Just a relentless push,” Bennett said. “All lines were just giving it everything we had.”

Following a scoreless overtime, the cinematic showdown went to the shootout.

Helping the Panthers complete their historic comeback, Reinhart and Evan Rodrigues each scored in the shootout, while Bobrovsky allowed just one goal to lock down the 4-3 win.

On a roll, the Panthers will now try to ride this high into a battle with the St. Louis Blues.

In less than 24 hours, the puck will drop again.

“We’ve got a couple hours to enjoy,” Bobrovsky said. “Tomorrow’s a new game.”

THEY SAID IT

“The guys that play a lot of minutes, obviously it’s on us to step up and produced when called upon. It’s not going to happen every night, but it’s nice when it does. The great thing about our group is we always win with our depth.” – Brad Marchand

“There’s a lot of experience in this locker room, a lot of guys that have played in a lot of big games, a lot of comeback games. That obviously helps a lot. Just the leadership can drag everyone into the fight.” – Sam Bennett

“It shows the character in the locker room. It shows our structure and our game.” – Sergei Bobrovsky

“I was good with our game. Where we are in the year and where we are we building our team this year and the way we play, you look up at 3-0 and you don’t think that’s quite how the game was played. We needed one of these where a couple went our way.” – Paul Maurice

CATS STATS

- Brad Marchand is the fastest player to score 20 goals in a season for the Panthers at age 37 or older.

- The Panthers recorded a three-goal comeback in the third period for the sixth time in their history.

- Evan Rodrigues won a team-high 18 faceoffs.

- Sam Bennett fired a team-high 10 shots on goal.

- Seth Jones skated a team-high 30:47.

- Sam Reinhart has recorded multiple points in three of his last four games.

WHAT’S NEXT?

No rest for these Cardiac Cats.

With a chance to climb into first place in the Atlantic Division, the Panthers will try to sweep their back-to-back when they host the Blues at Amerant Bank Arena on Saturday.

With puck drop set for 6 p.m. ET, click HERE to score tickets.