Florida has lost four straight games for the second time this season
Florida has lost four straight games for the second time this season
The Florida Panthers looked quite a bit better on Saturday in New York than they had over the past week, but still were unable to pick up two points.
Florida couldn’t hold on to a two-goal lead, ultimately dropping a playoff-like contest to the New York Rangers 4-3 in a shootout.
The Panthers did get off to a strong start and they were rewarded with the game’s opening goal.
Carter Verhaeghe and Sam Bennett teamed up to win the puck along the boards in the Rangers zone, and Verhaeghe made a quick cross-ice pass to Josh Mahura at the point.
Mahura quickly fired a low wrist shot toward the net that was deflected past Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin by Florida winger Matthew Tkachuk to put the Panthers up 1-0.
Eetu Luostarinen gave the visitors a two-goal lead when he finished off a 2-on-1 with Anton Lundell just 21 seconds into the second period.
Florida nearly went up 3-0 when Nick Cousins hit the post after a bad giveaway by Jack Roslovic, and then moments later Kyle Okposo took a holding penalty to give the Rangers a power play.
An Adam Fox power play goal and an Artemi Panarin laser a couple minutes later tied the game for New York, turning an oddly quiet Madison Square Garden into the usual frenzy its better known for.
The game tightened up significantly from that point, with both teams limiting opportunities the other way as the game moved into its later stages.
Florida had only one shot on goal for much of the third period, until Verhaeghe curled into the circle and wired a shot over Shesterkin’s glove to give the Panthers a 3-2 lead with 4:08 to go.
It wouldn’t last very long though.
A Panarin shot hit off a pair of Panthers players in front of Sergei Bobrovsky and ended up trickling across the goal line, and just like that the game was tied again.
An exciting overtime decided nothing as both goaltenders continued to shine, so the game went on to a shootout.
A goal by Sam Reinhart wasn’t enough to overcome scores by Panarin and Mike Zibanejad, and the Rangers ended up taking the game by a final of 4-3.
On to Philadelphia.
Here are some thoughts and observations from Saturday’s battle on Broadway:
Tkachuk’s goal was his second in three games following an eight-game stretch without finding the back of the net.
Florida finished 0-for-2 on the power play while allowing one power play goal in three chances to the Rangers.
Reinhart’s assist on Luostarinen’s goal was just his second this month. He’s got seven goals and nine points in 10 March outings.
Verhaeghe logged a pair of assists, breaking a three-game points drought.
Bobrovsky finished with 34 saves, including a perfect 6-for-6 on New York’s high danger shots, though the Rangers’ expected goals was just 2.31, according to Natural Stat Trick.
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