SUNRISE, Fla. _ In the days before their 3-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Monday night, the Florida Panthers relinquished their playoff destiny. They were bowled over early in Toronto. They were beat late in Ottawa. They were dominated in Boston.
So entering Monday night's game against the Hurricanes, the Panthers were seven points out of a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with just five games remaining, relegated to wishing, trusting, praying for New Jersey losses. Powerless to influence the Devils' results, Florida could only hope to win out and stave off the summer for a few days longer.
The Panthers did.
Panthers defenseman Alexander Petrovic scored the game-winning goal with 7:58 remaining in the third period, snapping a three-game losing streak and keeping afloat Florida's shrinking playoff hopes. Florida can still be eliminated on Tuesday night with a regulation loss to Nashville and a New Jersey win over the Rangers.
The Panthers avoided a four-game losing streak that would have been the longest this season since Florida dropped five straight games in October and November. The cold spell dropped the club from the middle of a playoff race to the brink of it.
Petrovic wristed a shot from the top of the right circle to beat Hurricanes goaltender Scott Darling. It was his second goal of the season.
MacKenzie Weegar scored his second goal of the season and Evgenii Dadonov potted his 27th for the Panthers, who remain in danger of missing the playoffs for the fifth time in the last six years.
Roberto Luongo made 26 saves for the Panthers. He is now two games away from becoming the third goaltender in NHL history to play 1,000 games.
Carolina's Trevor Van Riemsdyk opened the scoring by hammering home a Brock McGinn rebound just 3:44 into the first period. The goal finished a Hurricanes possession in which they had four shots on goal in nine seconds.
The Panthers needed just 16 seconds to answer. Weegar breezed through the Carolina offensive zone off the rush, held the puck before beating Hurricanes goaltender Scott Darling. It was Weegar's first goal since Oct. 20.
After Aaron Ekblad drew a hooking call late in the first period, Dadonov cashed in on the power play. From the corner, Aleksander Barkov fed Dadonov in front of the net, who slipped it past Darling with 10 seconds remaining the period.
Hurricanes' fourth-liner Derek Ryan tied the game at 2 with 6:12 left in the second period, capitalizing on a line change by the Panthers. Florida's Nick Bjugstad tried to dump the puck deep into the Carolina zone, but it got picked off and turned the other way for a 2-on-0 Hurricanes break.
Bjugstad was demoted to the fourth line for the third period.
Monday's game started a treacherous end of the regular season for Florida. The Panthers play five games in seven days, including two sets of back-to-backs. Over the last month of the season, no one will play more hockey than Florida.
And the schedule may be wearing on the team.
The Panthers team that came storming out of the All-Star break and up the Eastern Conference standings appears to be gone, replaced by a group whose results have not matched the postseason race they're in. Florida is now 6-5-1 in their last 12 games, a far cry from the 15-3-1 they were in the 19 games prior.
"There's been a lot of hockey," Panthers coach Bob Boughner said before the game. "There's been almost two months of almost every night crucial wins. I think that starts to weigh on a team a little bit. I want the guys just to take a breath here, press the reset button and let's just focus on winning the first one on this homestand. We know where we're at. We got to basically win out or win the next four at least and put some pressure on teams ahead of us. We can't do that playing tight. We have to make sure that we're a loose team and we play to our style."
