Forsling, For Real: Florida Panthers 3, Washington Capitals 2 (OT)

SUNRISE — The Washington Capitals are in a similar position that the Florida Panthers were in at this time last season.

On Saturday, it looked like it.

The Capitals scored a pair of power-play goals late in the second and midway through the third before Carter Verhaeghe appeared to tie the score with a power play goal — only postgame, Sasha Barkov was credited with it for deflecting it through.

In overtime, it was Gus Forsling who drilled home the winner, coming down on a 3-on-1 and one-timing a pass from Sam Bennett to give Florida its seventh win in eight games.

Washington, which had won three straight coming in and has points in six of its past seven games, are trying to chase down the Lightning for the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.

Florida got another stellar performance from Anthony Stolarz who was coming off a shutout in Buffalo last week.

The Panthers led 1-0 when Nick Cousins scored on a pretty nice deflection of a Dmitry Kulikov offering from the point.

Down 2-1 late in the third, Cousins had a fantastic scoring chance — but ended up drawing the penalty on which Verhaeghe tied the score.

Florida has now gone 13 straight games without giving up more than two goals.

GOALS OF THE GAME

• Panthers 1, Capitals 0 (4:03, 2nd): Dmitry Kulikov wings one from the blue and Nick Cousins deftly knocks it down in the slot, the puck rolling to the corner just out of Charlie Lindgren’s reach.
• Capitals 1, Panthers 1 (18:31, 2nd PP): Sonny Milano sat on the right post and got a sharp pass from Rasmus Sandin to tie things up — and halt Anthony Stolarz’s shutout streak at 115:55.
• Capitals 2, Panthers 1 (10:11, 3rd PP): Tom Wilson, who drew a holding penalty on Sasha Barkov, gets the power play goal by pulling in a hard rebound off the endboards and beating Stolarz with a backhanded shot.
• Panthers 2, Capitals 2 (16:30, 3rd PP): Carter Verhaeghe does it to the Capitals once more, sending a wrist shot to the net that Sasha Barkov got a piece of.
• Panthers 3, Capitals 2 (3:41 OT): Gus Forsling becomes the OT hero for the Panthers hammering a pass from Sam Bennett to send everyone home.

FHN’S 3 STARS OF THE GAME

1. Anthony Stolarz, Florida

2. Gus Forsling, Florida

3. Charlie Lindgren, Washington

ON DECK

BUFFALO SABRES @ FLORIDA PANTHERS

• When: Tuesday, 7 p.m.
• Where: Amerant Bank Arena, Sunrise
• Streaming ONLY: ESPN+/Hulu
• Radio: WPOW 96.5-FM2; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
• Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932, NHL app
• Season Series (Panthers Lead 1-0) — At Buffalo: Panthers 4, Sabres 0 (Feb. 15). At Florida: Tuesday; April 13.
• Last Season: Florida won 3-1
  
• All-time Regular Season Series: Florida leads 55-45-8, 4 ties
• Up Next for the Panthers: Thursday vs. Montreal, 7 p.m.