CARTER VERHAEGHE

(AP Photo/Alex Brandon) (Alex Brandon)WASHINGTON — (AP) — When the Florida Panthers faced their first real adversity of the season trailing their playoff series against the Washington Capitals, players held a meeting to set things straight. “We held each other accountable, worked really hard for each other and for the guy next to you. Initial nerves at home early in the series faded when Florida started to feel the pressure. Then the Panthers started to look and play like themselves and moved on to face the winner of the series between the back-to-back Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning and Toronto Maple Leafs. No team scored as many goals as the Panthers during the regular season — a rate of 4.11 a game not seen since Mario Lemieux's Pittsburgh Penguins.

The Florida Panthers found what made them the NHL's best regular-season team just in time to win the franchise's first playoff series in 26 years.

Panthers Capitals Hockey Florida Panthers center Aleksander Barkov (16) celebrates his goal during the third period of Game 6 in the first round of the NHL Stanley Cup hockey playoffs against the Washington Capitals, Friday, May 13, 2022, in Washington. Carter Verhaeghe scored the OT winner to send the Panthers to the second round by beating the Washington Capitals 4-3 in Game 6 Friday night. It’s the franchise’s first playoff series victory since 1996 when Florida reached the Stanley Cup Final. Those fans were silent after Verhaeghe scored his sixth goal of the series 2:46 into overtime. Their most recent series win came June 1, 1996, when they beat Pittsburgh in Game 7 to advance to the final.

Carter Verhaeghe scored the overtime winner to send the Panthers to the second round by beating the Washington Capitals 4-3 in Game 6.

The Pittsburgh Penguins may have to try and close out the New York Rangers without captain Sidney Crosby.

T.J. Oshie scored twice for Washington, which also got a goal from Justin Schultz and two assists from Evgeny Kuznetsov. Bobrovsky slammed the door from there, Giroux scored the insurance goal at 15:55, and the Comeback Cats had done it again. This was the season of the comeback for Florida, which had an NHL-best 29 come-from-behind wins during the regular season. In a span of 7:51, Florida went from down three and in huge trouble to tied going into the third. That would be the Florida Panthers.

Carter Verhaeghe set a Florida postseason record with a five-point night and the Florida Panthers escaped a three-goal deficit to beat the Washington Capitals 5-3 and take a 3-2 lead in an Eastern Conference first-round series.

Panthers Capitals Hockey Teammates surround Florida Panthers center Carter Verhaeghe (23) after his winning goal against the Washington Capitals in Game 4 in the first round of the NHL Stanley Cup hockey playoffs, Monday, May 9, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) (Alex Brandon)WASHINGTON — (AP) — Sam Reinhart tied it late in regulation, Carter Verhaeghe scored his second of the game in overtime and the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Florida Panthers beat the Washington Capitals 3-2 in Game 4 Monday night, tying the first-round series. Verhaeghe scored 4:57 into overtime to keep the NHL’s best regular-season team from getting pushed to the brink of elimination much earlier in the playoffs than expected. It’s a best-of-three series now with Game 5 Wednesday night at Florida. Before that point, the Panthers outshot the Capitals by a wide margin, but again were unable to finish.

Sam Reinhart tied it late in regulation, Carter Verhaeghe scored his second of the game in overtime and the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Florida Panthers beat the Washington Capitals 3-2 in Game 4 to tie the first-round series.

Aleksander Barkov and Carter Verhaeghe each had a goal and an assist and the Florida Panthers topped the Washington Capitals 5-1 on Thursday night to even their Eastern Conference first-round series at a game apiece.

Panthers Senators Hockey Florida Panthers defenceman Lucas Carlsson (32) passes the puck out of the reach of Ottawa Senators center Dylan Gambrell (27) as Panthers goaltender Spencer Knight (30) watches during the second period of an NHL hockey game Thursday, April 28, 2022, in Ottawa, Ontario. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press via AP) (Justin Tang)OTTAWA, Ontario — (AP) — Carter Verhaeghe scored twice and Spencer Knight stopped 27 shots for his second career shutout as the Florida Panthers beat the Ottawa Senators 4-0 on Thursday night. “I think it was big,” Panthers head coach Andrew Brunette said of Knight’s performance. Give them credit — it was good.”Verhaeghe scored his second of the game midway through the period for his 24th of the season. At the other end of the ice, Knight was holding his own, stopping Auston Watson on a great chance.

Anthony Duclair scored twice, Jonathan Huberdeau had a goal and four assists, and the Florida Panthers romped to a 9-3 rout of the NHL-leading Tampa Bay Lightning.

The Florida Panthers have matched the best 11-game start in NHL history.

Alex Killorn scored a pair of second-period goals and the Tampa Bay Lightning rebounded from its first postseason loss to rout the Florida Panthers 6-2 and take a commanding 3-1 lead in the first-round Central Division playoff matchup.

Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 32 shots, Steven Stamkos and Ondrej Palat had first-period goals and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Florida Panthers 3-1 on Tuesday night to take a 2-0 lead in their Central Division first-round playoff series.

Nikita Kucherov scored two power-play goals in his first appearance of the season, and Blake Coleman scored a short-handed goal. Point tied it at 4 with seven minutes to go on his power-play goal and then got the winner when he skated in on a breakaway and backhanded the puck past Bobrovsky. The Lightning took a 1-0 lead on Coleman’s short-handed goal 16 seconds later. The Panthers tied it at 1 on Barkov’s power-play goal at 9:41, and Verhaeghe put them ahead with 3:29 left in the first. The second period ended with a fighting scrum in front of the Tampa Bay net.

Brayden Point scored two late goals, including the game-winner with 1:14 left in the third period, to lift the defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning over the Florida Panthers 5-4 to take Game 1 of their playoff series.

The Lightning opened the game with the first all-Black line in NHL history -- Mathieu Joseph, Gemel Smith and Daniel Walcott. The Panthers had the best point percentage in team history, best home record and best road record. COOPER’S MARKThis was the eighth full season on the Tampa Bay bench for Lightning coach Jon Cooper. He is 42 games shy of tying Doug Jarvis’ NHL record. Tampa Bay had five players appear in all 56 games -- Joseph, Brayden Point, Mikhail Sergachev, Yanni Gourde and Alex Killorn.

Chris Driedger stopped 30 shots to record his third shutout of the season, Juho Lammikko scored a short-handed goal, and the Florida Panthers secured home-ice advantage for the opening round of the Stanley Cup playoffs with a 4-0 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning in the regular season finale for both clubs.

Florida’s 6-1-2 start through nine games is the second-best in franchise history, topped only by the 6-0-3 record to open the 1996-97 season. “We've been consistent in most games," Florida coach Joel Quenneville said. Starting poorly, however, has pretty much snuffed out some Panthers seasons before they even started. The five Florida teams that went to the playoffs — 1995-96, 1996-97, 1999-2000, 2011-12 and 2015-16 — averaged 12 standings points through the season’s first nine games. There’s obviously a long way to go, but the Panthers finally have the start they wanted.

The triumph of winning the NHL championship in a bubble was certainly no less sweet for the Tampa Bay Lightning. He played 964 regular-season and 137 playoff games to get to this point, losing in the final twice before. Tampa Bay had Point and No. Coach Jon Cooper thought the attitude needed to change from wanting to beat every opponent 9-0 because that’s not realistic in playoff hockey. ... Alexander Volkov made his NHL playoff debut for Tampa Bay, which also saw Patrick Maroon become just the eighth player to win the Cup in back-to-back seasons with different teams (St. Louis).