The Rangers played a steady 40 minutes of hockey, but couldn't handle the Panthers late in the contest as they lost 3-2 and are now one game away from elimination.
The New York Rangers suffered a gut-wrenching 3-2 loss to the Florida Panthers in Game 5 as they are now on the brink of elimination.
In Game 4, the Rangers were so close to taking a commanding 3-1 series lead, but Sam Reinhart scored quickly into overtime which propelled Florida to a crucial victory.
For the majority of this series, the Panthers have dominated New York, forcing the Rangers to play on their heels. The physicality of Florida has been overwhelming for the Rangers.
However, for the first time in this series, New York played a really steady 40 minutes where they were able to hold their own offensively.
Through the first two periods, the offensive zone time was about even between the two teams while going back and forth with scoring chances.
Chris Kreider broke the scoring in the second period with the Rangers shorthanded, which was actually Kreider’s first goal of the series.
A few minutes later Gustav Forsling tied the game for the Panthers and the score was 1-1 heading into a crucial third period.
In the final frame, Florida started to play their same physical style that has frustrated the Rangers all series long. It worked to perfection once again.
Anton Lundell gave the Panthers their first lead 10:22 into the period. After that goal, the whole mood of the game changed.
The crowd at Madison Square Garden fell silent and the vibe went from excitement to a nervous anxiety that was clearly felt by the players.
Despite the Rangers' efforts to break through and create scoring opportunities, Florida’s defense was almost like a brick wall and New York had trouble even breaking into the offensive zone.
It goes to show that the Panthers are made for playoff hockey due to their physicality and ability to shut down their opponents in the most critical situations.
“It was a tight game,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said. “Chances were probably pretty much even... It goes to the third period and they got one.”
Believe it or not, the Rangers actually played one of their better games of this series, but in the third period they began to plummet and couldn’t recover.
“Had a good start... then you're trying to play from behind with not too much time left, and it's not that easy,” Adam Fox said.
Now the Rangers must shift their focus to Game 6 where their season will be on the line.
It was a good effort, but you wanna win... Now we just gotta go there and get one, and give ourselves a chance to come back here and win a Game 7,” Fox said.