Colby Guy
SUNRISE — In their 3-2 overtime win over the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday, the Florida Panthers prepared themselves for one of the oldest adages in the lore of the Stanley Cup Playoffs — hot goaltenders can steal games.
The Panthers knew it all too well after Tampa Bay netminder Andrei Valisevskiy posted a 29-save shutout to knock them out in Game 6 of the first round last year.
“We know we are going to face it and we know it is going to happen again,” Panthers coach Andrew Brunette said.
“The way the group kind of stayed to the plan, did not force the issue and just stayed consistent really speaks of this group right now.”
On Tuesday night, their test was John Gibson.
It took a lot of work — but they passed
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Despite holding a 55-24 lead in shots and a 55-19 lead in scoring chances, Florida found itself trailing for the majority of the game.
Gibson stopped 52 of 55 shots to keep Anaheim in the game.
The frustration of facing a hot goaltender like Gibson got to a lot of past Panthers teams, but not this one.
They did not relent until they broke through and it won them the game.
“We never get discouraged, I think that’s the kind of team we are,” said Jonathan Huberdeau, who got the game-winner in overtime.
“What’s going to happen when we play against a good goalie that’s going to make a lot of saves? We had 55 shots. Obviously some of them are going to go in, so we kind of stuck with it.”
With the playoffs just nine games away, it is a mentality the Panthers are going to have to keep up going into them.
“It’s a matter of continuing to the next shift, not getting down on ourselves and not getting frustrated,” said Anthony Duclair, who scored Florida’s first two goals.
“Our guys have done a really good job and it starts with our leadership group talking to us between periods and making sure we know to keep going.”
Troy Terry got the Ducks on the board with their first shot of the night, potting a feed from Trevor Zegras past Sergei Bobrovsky 7:38 in.
The Panthers controlled play for the majority of the first period thereafter, outshooting Anaheim 17-4 and holding a 15-5 advantage in scoring chances.
However, Gibson came up with saves on all five of Florida’s high-danger scoring chances.
He would continue to do so during the second period.
Duclair got the Panthers on the board 1:44 in with a bank shot, but Gibson did not let up a goal for the rest of the second period.
It was a frame Florida led 16-9 in shots and 9-5 in scoring chances.
However, Anaheim entered the second intermission with the lead after Derek Grant deflected a feed from Jamie Drysdale from the slot past Bobrovsky with 2:36 left in the period.
The Panthers continued their offensive onslaught on the Ducks, leading 9-1 through the first half of the second period, but Gibson stood strong.
That was until Duclair put Florida’s tenth shot of the period past Gibson off of a feed from Sam Reinhart with 9:51 to go to tie the game up at two.
The game would need extra time and Gibson came up big yet again for Anaheim.
First, he stopped a wide-open Sam Bennett on a clean wrist shot from the slot with a glove save 1:36 into overtime.
Then, Duclair got his chance to win the game and complete the hat trick on a wrap around attempt, but Gibson was just able to get his pad on it to keep Anaheim alive.
“I was happy to get a good chance out there during overtime, it almost squeeked through,” Duclair said.
“[Gibson] was unbelievable in net, he just made another great save.”
Seconds later, Huberdeau stripped Terry of the puck and got his own rebound to win the game with 1:19 to go in overtime.
“I kind of paniced, I thought it was going to open up a bit,” he said.
“The way he plays it, he doesn’t really open up his five-hole, so I just stuck with it and tried to put the puck home.”