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Capitals Fall To Panthers, 4-3 In Overtime; Anthony Mantha Scores Twice, Connor McMichael Scores Third Goal Of The Season

By Jon Sorensen·
Screen cap: X/@HockeyOnTNT

The Washington Capitals didn’t get the result they wanted to conclude their five-game homestand against the Florida Panthers. The Caps blew leads of 1-0 and 3-2, but the Panthers battled back to tie the game early in the third period and it forced overtime. Sam Reinhart ended matters 15 seconds into the extra session giving the Panthers a 4-3 win. 

The Capitals third line consisting of Anthony Mantha, Connor McMichael and Aliaksei Protas was buzzing all night long. Mantha had two goals, Protas had two assists and McMichael had a short-handed tally and an assist.

Here is how it went down.

PERIOD 1

The Capitals had two odd-man rushes to start the period but came up empty. They had the puck a lot for the first half of the period. Mantha gave the Caps a 1-0 lead thanks to some puck luck. He tried passing it to the middle, but the puck glanced off the body of Anton Lundell and beat Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky five-hole. 

Protas and Darcy Kuemper got the apples.

However 2:07 after the Caps opened the scoring, Oliver Ekman-Larsson snuck a wrister to the blocker side of Kuemper. Matthew Tkachuk and Lundell got the helpers.

Four minutes later, Florida took the lead. Alex Alexeyev turned the puck over behind the net and Sam Reinhart fed the puck to Aleksander Barkov, giving the Panthers a 2-1 lead.

The Capitals outshot the Panthers 11-8 through the first 20.

PERIOD 2

The Caps got the game’s first penalty. Tom Wilson got called for a high-stick. But Washington went on the counterattack. Protas blocked a shot and hustled with the puck on his stick. He centered a pass to a streaking Connor McMichael, who went forehand-backhand tying the game at two a piece. It was McMichael’s first career shorthanded goal.

Washington had some momentum after the McMichael goal. T.J. Oshie drew a high-sticking infraction putting the Caps to the power play.

Sonny Milano appeared to have given the Capitals a 3-2 lead, but the Panthers challenged the play for offsides and it was successful. It was Washington’s fourth disallowed goal this season.

The third line continued to buzz. With just under four minutes to play in the middle stanza, McMichael forced a giveaway and had another odd-man rush with Mantha. Mantha got his second goal of the game going low-blocker side on Bobrovsky, giving the Caps a 3-2 lead headed into the third period.

Washington narrowly led in the shot category 7-6.

PERIOD 3

The Panthers tied the game 3:33 into the third period. Gustaf Forsling threw a perfect seam pass from the point, right on the tape of Evan Rodrigues for a backdoor tap in.

Washington got its second man-advantage of the game. Alex Ovechkin had three shots on goal during the two-minutes, but the Caps came up empty.

OVERTIME

Sam Reinhart ended matters 15 seconds in overtime.

By Jacob Cheris