Florida Panthers center Carter Verhaeghe of Toronto, Ontario scored his first career National Hockey League Stanley Cup Playoff overtime winner on Monday. Verhaeghe accomplished the feat in a 3-2 Florida Panthers victory over the Washington Capitals in game four of the Eastern Conference Quaterfinals to tie the series at two.
In an all-Canadian goal, Verhaeghe’s overtime winner came from Sam Bennett of Holland Landing, Ontario, and Aaron Ekblad of Windsor, Ontario. It was not only an all-Canadian goal, but an all-Ontario goal as well.
This was Verhaeghe’s first career game-winning goal in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. During 173 NHL regular season games, he has eight game-winning goals (seven with the Panthers and one with the Tampa Bay Lightning). It was during his rookie season of 2019-20, that Verhaeghe played eight postseason games with the Lightning in the Edmonton bubble, and won the Stanley Cup.
Since then, Verhaeghe has five goals and three assists for eight points on 10 playoff games with the Panthers. Expectations were high for Florida coming into the Stanley Cup Playoffs. They won the Presidents’ Trophy for the first time in franchise history this season. The last team to win the Stanley Cup and the Presidents’ Trophy in the same season were the 2013 Chicago Blackhawks. The last Canadian team to win the Stanley Cup and the Presidents’ Trophy were the Calgary Flames in 1989.