The Rangers Win Game 3 Against the Panthers in Dramatic Fashion
The New York Rangers take a 2-1 series lead over the Florida Panthers with a 5-4 win in overtime. Both offenses were on full display with a total of nine goals after two heavily defensive games in Madison Square Garden to begin the series.
How it Happened
The Panthers got on the board early with a power play goal from their leading goal scorer on the season, Sam Reinhart. Five minutes later the Rangers struck twice in 25 seconds with goals from Alexis Lafrenière and Barclay Goodrow, however, Reinhart would cash in the equalizer with another power play goal to send the game into the first intermission tied at two.
Lafrenière and Goodrow were both not satisfied with their first-period performance so they buried their second goals of the game three minutes apart to give the Rangers a 4-2 lead heading into the third.
The Cats erased the two-goal deficit in the blink of an eye with goals from Aleksander Barkov and Gustav Forsling to help send the game into overtime.
Despite all the momentum, the Panthers could not complete the comeback as Alex Wennberg tipped in the overtime winner to prevent a huge third-period collapse from the Blueshirts.
My Reaction
What. A. Game. If you tell me we give up four goals I don’t think we come away with a victory. It feels like we absolutely stole this game after giving up two power play goals, being outshot by 14, and Igor Shesterkin letting in a few tough goals. The Rangers have all the momentum now with back-to-back overtime wins and are now 4-0 in OT throughout this postseason. I guess they have a flare for the dramatics.
Production From Bottom Two Lines
Goodrow buried two goals, one of them short-handed which was huge to help the Rangers settle into their penalty kill after giving up two in the first period. He has been incredible throughout the playoffs with six goals in 13 games played after playing 80 games in the regular season and netting only four.
Alex Wennberg also came up big when the lights were the brightest. After being acquired from the Seattle Kraken in March, Wennberg has struggled to put the puck in the back of the net. Coming into the game he had one goal in 31 games with New York, but he doubled that total with the OT winner.
Production like this from the bottom lines is huge this late in the postseason, especially when your top guys are struggling right now. Mike Zibanejad, Chris Kreider, and Artemi Panarin, three of the team's top five point scorers this year, all have a combined one point in three games against the Panthers. Usually, that is not a recipe for success and Florida is doing a good job containing them, but it doesn’t matter when you got guys up and down the lineup who can step up.
Mistakes in Game 3
A win is a win, but there are definitely some areas the team needs to improve on heading into Game 4.
Penalties
First, the team needs to stay out of the box. You cannot give this Panthers team six power play chances in a game, they are bound to bury at least one if not two like they did in Game 3.
Jacob Trouba needs to take this advice and be smart when it comes to his physicality going forward. This is now the second game in this postseason where he has racked up six penalty minutes in a game. He is on the first penalty kill unit and is useless if he is the one serving the time when the opposition is on the man advantage.
Trouba was fined 5,000 dollars for his Game 3 elbowing penalty on Evan Rodrigues, per ABC News.
Penalty Kill
Second, when you do take a penalty and you have a chance to clear on the kill…clear it. *cough cough K’Andre Miller*. The two power play goals the Rangers gave up they won the faceoff cleanly back to Miller. The first time he attempted to ring it around the boards but it was kept in by Matthew Tkachuk and the second time he tried to send it 200 feet down the ice Reinhart got his stick in the way and blocked the attempt.
It is one thing if he was pressured, but when you win the faceoff cleanly like Zibanejad did both times, you have to be able to send the puck down to the other end of the ice.
Power Play
The final thing the Rangers need to work on before Game 4 is their power play. They were ON FIRE to begin the playoffs but have cooled down tremendously. They are now 0-8 in the series against the Panthers whose penalty kill has been incredible lately. The Cats have killed 26 of their last 27 penalties, the lone goal coming in Game 4 against the Bruins.
What is the common theme with the three things the Rangers need to work on? Special teams. The Panthers are one of the best 5 on 5 teams in the league so if you can gain the advantage in special teams going forward, it could make the difference in who gets sent home and who moves on to the Finals.
Game 4
The series resumes in Sunrise on Tuesday, May 28, puck drop at 8:00 p.m. EST.