SUNRISE — There was no road map to the front of the net for Carter Verhaeghe on Tuesday night, no matter how many times he’s found his way there for the Florida Panthers.
There was just a lot of work starting with teams in junior hockey with the Niagra IceDogs, where he didn’t score until 18 games into his first season. He kept working in the minors with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, where he couldn’t get enough playing time one year so he also played with a lower-level, minor-league team, the Missouri Mavericks.
He led the Syracuse Crunch in scoring another year. He was traded for a goalie who eventually played three NHL games. He kept working to be a bit part of the Tampa Bay’s Stanley Cup team in 2020, and they promptly traded him to the Panthers, his fourth organization.
Every journey is different, and there’s nothing in Verhaeghe’s first seven years of pro hockey to say he’d be scoring his fifth overtime playoff goal Tuesday to give the Panthers a 3-2 win in Game 2 against Tampa Bay. Think of that: The Panthers have won 10 consecutive postseason overtime games the last three seasons, and Verhaeghe’s goals have ended five of them.
He’s now one behind Hall of Famers Maurice Richard and Joe Sakic in the record books for overtime playoff goals scored, despite playing about a quarter of their games.
“Those are some pretty good players,’’ Verhaeghe said. “But, honestly, we go out (in overtime), we’re pretty confident. Someone’s got to make a play, eventually.”
He smiled. “Being in the conversation with those guys is pretty crazy.”
Not that Verhaeghe was the whole show in putting the Panthers up 2-0 in this best-of-seven series. Not by a long shot. So much of Game 2 revolved around the two goalies, the Panthers’ Sergei Bobrovsky and Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy, and their hockey version of H-O-R-S-E.
In the second period, Bobrovsky made a no-look, back-to-the-shooter, dive-across-the-goal, stop-the-puck-with-an-outstretched-forearm save of Matt Dumba’s backhand that wins nights, leads highlight films and is the pose of anyone considering a statue of him. Which the Panthers just might if he carries another run through spring.
“My vantage point was the bench, and I was shocked,’’ Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad said of that save.
Vasilevskiy immediately answered with a combination stopping three, consecutive, rat-a-tat Panthers shots one minute and a snap-glove save of Matthew Tkachuk the next. Tkachuk hung his stick over his shoulders and looked skyward he was so sure of his chance.
“That could’ve sunk us,’’ Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said.
Bobrovsky then stuck out his left leg and needed his left skate to stop Tampa Bay’s Anthony Cirelli from stuffing in the puck. Steven Stamkos then shoved everyone into the net trying to get the lost puck to accompany them.
Do you see what this dramatic night of hockey involved? Vasilevskiy made a third-period breakaway stop of Ekblad even as the Panthers killed off a four-minute penalty. Bobrovsky answered by stopping former teammate Anthony Duclair on a breakaway in the last minute of regulation time.
“You’re looking at two of the best,’’ Cooper said. “You sit here in the biggest stage in the greatest league in the world and watch guys like that go toe-to-toe … sometimes you have to sit here — and I’m coach of one of the teams — and marvel at some of the saves that were made.”
Verhaeghe’s winning goal was the end product of regular grinding. Tkachuk got the puck off the boards. Anton Lundell took the puck and drew the defense to him. Verhaeghe went to the front of the net, took Lundell’s pass and patiently, so patiently in the manner he waited those seven years for his break, now waited for Vasilevskiy to move and leave an open stretch of net. That’s all he needed
“He’s got that clutch gene,’’ Ekblad said, sitting beside Verhaeghe afterward. “A lot of years of hard work go into that.”
The playoffs are a run of attrition, and the Panthers lost center Sam Bennett when he left holding his hand or wrist. But maybe something’s happening again for the Panthers. They went 7-0 in overtime playoff games on their run to the Stanley Cup Final last spring. They won their first one this spring.
Does that statistic say something about this team? And how do you read Tampa Bay having lost 11 of their past 12 overtime playoff games?
“There’s a lot of talk in the room about being calm, being aware of the situation and putting our best foot forward to make plays,’’ Ekblad said of leading into overtime. “In that moment, it can be tough to make plays. But it comes down from the coaching staff telling us to continue to make plays and not get too tight. You give that confidence to players …”
He nodded beside him to Verhaeghe, the product of four organizations.
“…. good things happen.”
