MIAMI _ The Florida Panthers found themselves in an all-too-familiar spot against the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday.
Trailing multiple goals late. Needing to overcome a sloppy start. Hoping their high-octane offense would overcome miscues on defense.
And, man, does this team know how to put together a comeback.
For the second time in five games, the Panthers erased a four-goal deficit with slick and timely goals after the game felt out of reach.
And once again, the Rally Cats get a miraculous win
Final score in overtime from the BB&T Center: Panthers 5, Ducks 4.
Aaron Ekblad scored the game winner 22 seconds into overtime to give the Panthers (12-5-5) their fifth win in the past six games and their seventh in their last 10.
Brett Connolly started the Panthers' rally with two goals in a 27-second stretch at the end of the second period to cut the Panthers' four-goal deficit in half going into the final 20 minutes of regulation. Connolly now has 10 goals on the season, tying with Jonathan Huberdeau and Evgenii Dadonov for the team lead.
Ekblad cut the deficit to one goal when he buried a shot from the right side just beyond the blue line with 8:05 left in regulation.
Dominic Toninato, recalled from the Panthers' American Hockey League affiliate Springfield Thunderbirds on Monday, scored the game-tying goal with 4:23 left in regulation to force overtime.
But for the first 39 minutes, Anaheim (10-10-3) looked like the superior team.
They opened scoring with 2:45 left in the first period when a deflected puck found Max Jones' stick in front of the net and Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky out of position. Jones buried the short shot for the 1-0 lead.
A Nick Ritchie slap shot made it 2-0 early in the second period. Rickard Rakell tapped in a power play goal with 4:10 left in the middle stanza and then Ondrej Kase added an unassisted wrist shot off a bad Panthers turnover in their defensive zone about three minutes later to give Anaheim the 4-0 lead.
Bobrovsky had saved the first 10 shots against him on Thursday. He gave up goals on four of the next 12 Ducks attempts. He was perfect in the third period, saving all 10 shots that came against him.
The Rally Cats came to life from there.
