Rangers fall 3-1 to Panthers, point streak snapped after six games
The Florida Panthers ended the New York Rangers’ magical season last spring with a Game 6 win in the Eastern Conference Final, on the way to winning their first Stanley Cup championship.
The Panthers were at it again Thursday night at Madison Square Garden, spoiling the Rangers’ record-setting start to this season. Florida won 3-1, ending New York’s franchise-record six-game point streak to begin a season.
It was the first time this season that the Rangers failed to score at least four goals. Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky was outstanding, making 24 saves to earn his 400th NHL win. Bobrovsky is the 14th goalie in NHL history to reach that milestone, and did so in the fewest number of games (707), surpassing Rangers legend Henrik Lundqvist (727 games).
Igor Shesterkin, as he was in the conference final last spring, was the Rangers’ best player, finishing with 25 saves.
Alexis Lafreniere scored the only goal for New York, which fell to 5-1-1.
Anton Lundell, Carter Verhaeghe and Sam Bennett each scored for Florida, which played without injured captain Aleksander Barkov for the seventh straight game and improved to 5-3-1.
“I think we were pretty sloppy there, right from the start, all game,” Rangers defenseman Adam Fox said postgame.
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Florida Panthers 3 – New York Rangers 1
Unlike Tuesday, when they scored in the first minute against the Montreal Canadiens and piled on four goals in the opening 11:05 of an eventual 7-2 win, the Rangers were on the other end of things at the start Thursday.
The Panthers scored 44 seconds into the game and upped their lead to 2-0 at 2:42 of the first period. They won a puck battle along the wall in the Rangers end and Sam Reinhart zipped a pass in front, where Lundell was all alone to bury his fifth goal of the season and give the Panthers a quick 1-0 advantage.
The Garden got quiet early after Verhaeghe scored his first of the season a bit under two minutes later. The Panthers forward backed off Jacob Trouba and had plenty of room to wire a left-circle shot far side past Shesterkin to put the home team in an early 2-0 hole.
But the Rangers got the crowd back into it just two minutes later. Fox whipped a pass from the right-wing wall to Lafreniere cutting to the net. Lafreniere slipped behind Jesper Boqvist, deked Bobrovsky and swept a backhand shot into the net at 4:44 to cut New York’s deficit in half with his fourth goal.
Then it was time for Shesterkin and Bobrovsky to take turns making one big save after another. Perhaps the best of the lot was a glove save by Bobrovsky on a breakaway by Jonny Brodzinski.
The star goalies were at it again in the second period. Bobrovsky stoned Filip Chytil on a break-in, and later flat-out robbed Vincent Trocheck with a toe save on a rebound after a sharp first save on Braden Schneider’s blast.
Shesterkin did his part at the other end of the ice to keep things close when the Panthers controlled the puck most of the period. He was beaten once, though, on a perfect deflection by Bennett at 6:59, and the Rangers headed into the second intermission trailing 3-1, only the second time they’ve been behind after two periods this season.
Florida completely stymied New York’s power play midway through the second period and a crucial one 48 seconds into the third. Buoyed by an incredible sprawling glove save against Reinhart by Shesterkin, the Rangers killed off a Panthers power play a few minutes later to keep it 3-1.
The Rangers had one last chance. They were awarded a power play at 16:57 of the third when Verhaeghe was whistled for cross-checking. Shesterkin was pulled for an extra attacker, giving the Rangers a full two minutes of a 6-on-4 power play, but they could not beat Bobrovsky.
“I thought they were better in the first. I thought they were better in the second, and they were better in the third,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said.
There were a lot of similarities in this defeat and the ones against the Panthers last postseason. Florida looked quicker and won more puck battles, and the Panthers outchanced the Rangers 18-5 in the final 40 minutes, per Natural Stat Trick.
The Rangers go from playing one of the best teams in the League to one at the other end of standings when they host the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday at MSG.
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