Playing for the Florida Panthers for as long as Frank Vatrano has means learning to deal with late-season disappointment.
When he joined the Panthers in a midseason trade in 2016, Vatrano was acquired for a playoff push and it went all the way until the last week of the season before Florida was eliminated with just one game left. In 2019, Florida got eliminated with six games to play. Last year, the Panthers went to the expanded postseason before losing in the qualifying round and missing out on the traditional 16-team Stanley Cup playoffs once again.
Florida was on the brink of another frustrating late-season loss to the Nashville Predators on Tuesday. They trailed entering the third period despite racking up more than 40 shots and yanked Sergei Bobrovsky amid one of his worst starts of the season. With 12:45 left in Florida’s sixth to last game of the regular season, Vatrano sent the Panthers to the 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs with the game-winning goal in a 7-4 victory in Nashville.
“Usually at this point of the season, we’re kind of battling for that last playoff spot,” the winger said Monday. “It means a lot to everyone in that room.”
For only sixth time in franchise history, Florida is headed to the traditional Cup playoffs.
Florida rallied from a 4-3 deficit in the third period with two goals in the first nine minutes of the third to secure its place in the NHL’s postseason, and keep pace with the rival Carolina Hurricanes and Tampa Bay Lightning in the Central Division. With five games left, it’s the earliest the Panthers have clinched a playoff berth since 2000 and it came in one of the most thorough offensive performances in franchise history.
Florida tied the team record with 55 shots on goal, All-Star left wing Jonathan Huberdeau notched his second five-point game of the season, star center Aleksander Barkov scored a pair of goals, versatile forward Sam Bennett logged three points and the Panthers scored multiple power-play goals for the first time in a month.
On Monday, they lost by three goals despite outshooting the Predators, 40-27. On Tuesday, they finally overwhelmed Nashville goaltender Juuse Saros.
Florida won’t be without significant questions to answer in the final two weeks of the season, though. Goaltender Chris Driedger went down with a lower-body injury Monday and will likely miss the rest of the week, and Bobrovsky nearly cost the Panthers with one of his worst performances of the season Tuesday.
Bobrovsky made just 17 saves on 21 shots and sent Florida into the final period trailing 4-3. He gave up the opening goal to Predators defenseman Ryan Ellis on a long slap shot with 13:53 left in the first, then surrendered a game-tying goal on a rebound by Nashville forward Luke Kunin with 13:10 left in the second. Less than six minutes later, he gave up a go-ahead goal to Predators left wing Tanner Jeannot after serving up a massive rebound and he gave up another go-ahead goal to Ellis just 2:05 after star center Aleksander Barkov tied the game with a highlight-reel score.
