Dave Hyde: A night in need of heroes finds the two biggest Florida Panthers goals in 26 years

There’s only one word for the Florida Panthers after Monday night. Whew. That’s really it. Oh, there were words like “resilience,” and “grit,” thrown around in the aftermath, because to the victor goes the vocabulary.

But seriously. Take a deep breath, count your blessings, clean the blood off Sam Bennett and move on to Game 5 on Wednesday night in Sunrise with the season still intact.

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Whew.

“We’ve got another gear – but this was a very encouraging sign,’’ Panthers interim coach Andrew Brunette said after a 3-2 overtime win in Game 4 to even the series at 2-2.

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Did they deserve to win? That’s a big question, one that goes beyond the divided game statistics into some timely heroics by names off the marquee and the smart thinking of the Panthers and their general manager, Bill Zito, as you’ll see.

Their season isn’t on life support of a three-to-one series deficit. That’s what this night meant. They regained momentum in what’s now a best-of-three series. That’s the biggest takeaway moving into Game 5.

The Panthers had nearly double the shots of Washington and controlled play much of the game, but were down 2-1 with about four minutes to play. That’s when coach Andrew Brunette considered pulling goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, who had another good night.

“Thank god, I didn’t,’’ Brunette said.

Bobrovsky then made a big save on Washington’s Marcus Johansson. That’s something to remember, something that says how random sports can be even at the highest levels. Maybe especially at them.

“I don’t know anything,’’ Brunette said afterward, smiling. “You take a chance and it worked out.”

You have to appreciate someone who can poke fun in the biggest decisions. Of course, you appreciate anyone more who wins and the Panthers kept their season from falling into a black hole after Bobrovsky was pulled with just over three minutes to go. A length-of-the-ice Washington shot hit the left post.

“A game of inches,’’ Panthers forward Carter Verhaeghe said,.

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What happened next poses the kind of playoff question you love to debate: Who’s goal was bigger?

Sam Reinhart scored the biggest Panthers goal in 26 years. That’s no great debate considering this game and the stakes. The Panthers haven’t won anything since 1996. Reinhart had just enough room in front of the net to beat Washington’s stubborn goalie, Ilya Samsonov, with just over two minutes left.

“This was our best effort,’ Reinhart said. “It looked like our team.”

Then, just under five minutes into overtime, Verhaeghe scored just as big a goal. He put one in the top corner of the net to tie the series and stave off one could have been an ugly ending to this fun Panthers season.

“One shot in overtime,’’ said Verhaeghe, who also scored the Panthers’ opening goal.. “Lucky we got that shot first.”

Let’s pause for a moment to consider these two crucial goals – and how they were scored for this rejuvenated Panthers team. Rhinehart was the No. 2 pick in the draft in 2014. He played six years in Buffalo, never making the playoffs.

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By the end of his time in Buffalo, something went wrong with him and the team, and Panthers General Manage Bill Zito plucked him a first-round pick. Monday’s goal was the first playoff goal of Rinehart’s career.

It was the dividend of a smart trade. There’s no coincidence here: When management gets smarter, the team gets better.

And Verhaeghe? His pro career effectively started in 2015 with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers of the American Hockey League. He played the next season for the Missouri Mavericks of the East Coast Hockey League. Then the Syracuse Crunch for a couple of years.

So you see he came up a hard way. Even when called up to the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2019 – his first NHL game was against the Panthers – they were so stacked with Stanley-Cup-winning talent he didn’t have much of a role.

That’s how Zito traded for him. It’s how Verhaeghe scored the game-winner that kept the Panthers from severe trouble against Washington.

“All series we’ve been kind of struggling with some stuff,’’ Verhaeghe said. “Finally, I think it was our best game of the series.”

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Winning is a perfume that covers problems. The Panthers are 0-13 on power players. That’s a problem. The Panthers best players, Aleksander Barkov, Claude Giroux and Jonathan Huberdeau, haven’t impacted the play much so far, either. That’s a problem.

One of their tough forwards, Bennett, was bloodied on what appeared to be a penalty-worthy hit by Washington’s T.J. Oshie. Play went the other way and Washington scored a go-ahead goal. That could have been a problem.

None of that matters now. The Panthers are home Wednesday. The series is even. This ridiculous 26-year run without a playoff series has a good chance to fall. There’s just one word for it all. Whew.