Rangers make a statement in 5-2 win over Panthers

About the game

Mika Zibanejad had spoken about the importance of playing a full game on Sunday and he did his part getting the Rangers off to a great start.  He broke into the Panther’s zone with Ryan Reaves and tried to get the pass to him and it deflected off defenseman Gustav Forsling and past Spencer Knight and the Rangers had the lead just 35 seconds in.

It was the fastest goal that they have scored in a game this season.

Despite the lead, the Panthers took over and had the better of the play.  The Rangers got a huge break when the Panther’s Owen Tippett scored off the rush at 9:17, but the goal was disallowed as it was offside.  It took a challenge by Gerard Gallant and the result was in the Blueshirts’ favor.

Still, the Rangers couldn’t stand good fortune as on a practically identical play, Anthony Duclair whipped a shot past Igor Shesterkin just a minute and a half later. It was a defensive breakdown as Libor Hajek took the wrong player and left Duclair wide open.

The period ended 1-1 and the Rangers had to consider themselves fortunate as they were outshot 15-7 and had a Florida goal disallowed. After the game, Kreider said that “we gave them too much time and space. They’re the best rush team in the league and we gave them a bunch of rush chances.”

In the second period, the Rangers came out hitting,  but K’Andre Miller was given a penalty for holding Sam Reinhart and the Panthers power play connected just 2:18 into the period.

At that point, the Rangers took over. Their forecheck improved along with their physical play and the Panthers were unable to transition to offense as easily as they did in the first period. Just 1:09 after the Reinhart goals, Chris Kreider kept the puck along the boards and fed Alexis Lafrenière who skated out and put a backhand past Knight.

Tie game.

The Rangers controlled play with the help of one power play, but they also had to kill two penalties. FInally, at 16:46, Carter Verhaege was called for hooking Ryan Strome and the Rangers power play went to work. On the rush, Panarin got the puck to Strome who fed a streaking Chris Kreider who put it past the Florida Goalie.

With two and a half minutes left in the period, the Rangers were up 3-2.

With less than two minutes left, Ryan Strome took a big hit from Mason Marchment, a hit that left him shaken up as he was in a defenseless position.

The third period was all New York as Rangers kept the Panthers bottled up in their own zone.  They held Florida to nine shots and whenever the Panthers were able to get into the zone, Igor Shesterkin was there to make the save.  The Panthers had no high danger scoring chances in the third period.

Five minutes it, Strome had his chance to get even with Marchment for the hit and in a spirited bout, Strome won the clear decision.

At 14:39 it was Kreider again on the power play after a high sticking call against Marchment.   He took a spectacular pass from Zibanejad who threaded the needle to the front of the net for an easy tip-in for Kreider.

Florida pulled their goalie with 3:33 left in the game, but Aleksander Barkov went off for tripping and Artemi Panarin put the puck in the empty net with 41 second left.

Here’s a video recap of the game.

Sure, the Panthers were on the second game of back-to-backs, but this was a resounding win for the Rangers and sent them off for a well deserved break.