Capitals collapse in 3rd period against Panthers

The Washington Capitals had played a good game if games lasted 40 minutes. In the final 20? They came out absolutely flat. Sitting with a 4-1 lead, the Florida Panthers came all the way back. Message to folks in Florida, you should start paying attention to your hockey team. It looked like there weren’t a lot of people there and the locals that weren’t missed an epic comeback by the home team.

But in the first 40 things were looking really good for the Caps and give credit to the kids, they’ve really stepped up to the plate all season long. At 5:52, Connor McMichael followed his shot and got a bounce off the back foot of Sergei Bobrovsky. Norris Nick Jensen and Dmitry Orlov had the helpers. For McMichael, it was his third of the year at the site where he scored his first NHL goal.

Beck Malenstyn finished off a backhanded pass with a nifty stick handling move by Brett Leason at 6:03 to make it 2-0. Two goals in 11 seconds. What could possibly go wrong, right? Trevor van Riemsdyk had the secondary assist.

The Panthers got on the board at 6:55 from big bearded Joe Thornton. 2-1 Caps was the score after one while shots were 15-12 in favor of Florida.

In the second period Lars Eller glided down the ice and finished off a backhander for his second of the season at 6:40. Tom Wilson and Orlov had the assists. Six minutes later, the Caps extended their lead to 4-1 with a shot to the roof of the net by Jensen for his third of the season. Carl Hagelin and Nic Dowd had the assists. 4-1 was the score after two with the Caps leading in shots 13-9.

The third period was a complete meltdown by the Caps. Not only did they allow four unanswered goals to suffer the regulation loss but two of them came on the power play while the other came while the Panthers were short handed.

First it was Ryan Lomberg at 3:23. Then it was Eetu Lustarinen shorthanded at 6:09. Sam Bennett tied the game on the power play at 12:01. Then in typical collapsing fashion, the Caps were down a man short as Malenstyn was called for goaltender interference, putting the hosts on the power play with 57 seconds left.

Sam Reinhart made them pay, potting a goal with 14.4 seconds left to complete the comeback and stun the Caps. It was a period that saw the Caps get outshot 27-2. That’s right, only TWO shots that entire period.

It only gets worse. Ilya Samsonov got the start in goal but this loss wasn’t on him. Nope, not even close. He made the key saves and bailed the Caps out at times until it got real ugly late. But remember, the Caps were also undisciplined. They gave the Panthers four power play opportunities and they converted on two of them.

The Caps were also out attempted 34-4 overall in the final period. They were outshot 18-1 and out attempted 23-2 at five on five. They’ll look to correct those mistakes and try and play a full 60 minute game on Thursday night at home against the Chicago Blackhawks.