Florida Panthers Have Wind Back in Sails After Game 3 Overtime Win
“It’s a fine line this time of year between winning and losing, and we’ve been riding that line,” Sam Reinhart said
SUNRISE, Fla. — The Florida Panthers are waking up in a much better spot than they could have been.
After marching their way back from multiple two-goal deficits, the Panthers managed to survive and defeat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 5-4, in overtime to take Game 3 and cut their series deficit to 2-1.
The Panthers managed to escape the brink of elimination and give themselves some belief headed into a pivotal Game 4 on home ice on Sunday night.
“I don’t know, this time of year, if you can expect it to be any different,” Sam Reinhart said. “Certainly, we’ve been here before and it’s been three close games in the third period that could have gone either way and it was nice to kind of hang onto one.”
Florida dropped each of the first two games of the series in Toronto by one goal.
In Game 1, the Panthers fell 5-4 after clawing their way back within a goal from a three-goal deficit just for Matthew Knies score the insurance marker after a blown assignment off the rush.
In Game 2, they lost 4-3 after leading 2-1 early in the second period. The Maple Leafs scored back-to-back goals off the rush, Anton Lundell tied the game early in the third period just for Mitch Marner to give the Toronto a lead it would never relinquish 17 seconds later.
The Panthers took those losses on the nose and went right back at it, even when they found themselves in a two-goal hole just 5:57 into Game 3.
“It’s a fine line this time of year between winning and losing, and we’ve been riding that line,” Reinhart said. “We’re staying composed, we’re comfortable in those situations, so we gotta recover and then get right back at it.”
The Panthers have some wind in their sails after finding the right side of that line, and they intend on taking advantage of it.
“Momentum swings all the time and it’s something as simple as moving through the neutral zone and not making an extra play,” Aaron Ekblad said. “Controlling that flow of the game is something we focus on as a team and it’s extremely important game-to-game.
“When you win a game, you’re feeling like the best team in the world and when you lose a game, you’re kind of feeling really down. It’s something we try to avoid and that experience and the veteran leadership in our room is what takes care of those swings.”
The Panthers know what they have to do to avoid this — after all, they have done this before.
Florida came back from a 3-1 series deficit against the NHL’s greatest regular season team of all-time in 2023, defeating the Boston Bruins in overtime in two of their three-consecutive victories.
The Panthers have managed to dance the line of winning and losing multiple times since by doing what they do best — getting aggressive on the forecheck, laying the body and sticking to that style no matter the game situation or series situation.
It was how the Panthers managed to gut out Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final even after failing to close out the series three-straight times after they took a 3-0 lead to open the series.
“It’s huge to get that win, but our mentality doesn’t change with how we approach each game,” Evan Rodrigues said the morning after. “Our style of play doesn’t change and what we have to do to be successful doesn’t change, so we’ll take it on a game-by-game basis just as we have been we’ll start preparing for Game 4 right now.”