The Panthers rallied from a 4-2 deficit, but the Rangers won again in extra time in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals, taking a 2-1 lead.
SUNRISE — For the second straight game, the Rangers and Panthers needed overtime to decide a winner. And for the second straight game, it was New York celebrating at the end.
Alex Wennberg scored the winner in overtime, deflecting a shot from defenseman Ryan Lindgren into the net and giving the Rangers a 2-1 lead in the series with a 5-4 win at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise on Sunday.
“Obviously, not happy with the end result,” Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov said. “But some good things in the game that we can take to the next game. All we’ve got to do is recover now and move on.”
At the start of the third period, Game 3 did not appear headed to overtime. The Rangers had a 4-2 lead and had stolen the momentum from the Panthers. Cue Barkov.
After coach Paul Maurice switched up the lines, the Panthers started showing life again. Barkov got Florida back in the game with a tip-in goal with 14:56 left in the third period, and defenseman Gustav Forsling scored the game-tying goal less than two minutes later. Although the Panthers dominated much of the third period, they could not get a winner in the last minutes of regulation.
“Sometimes you need to create something different, and I guess it worked for us in the third period and we got going,” Barkov said. “We just moved better and competed a little better.”
The Panthers offense was firing early, though, before entering a second-period drought. Rangers defenseman Braden Schneider went to the penalty box for a delay of game, and Florida’s leading goal-scorer in the regular season, Sam Reinhart, made New York pay.
Reinhart received the puck from Barkov, weaved in front of Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin and beat the former Vezina Trophy winner with a backhand shot over his shoulder for the game’s first goal less than three minutes into the game.
After initially struggling to break through the Panthers’ defense, the Rangers struck back with 12:43 left in the first period. Former Panther Vincent Trocheck delivered a pass to Alexis Lafreniere to split Florida’s defenders, and Lafreniere scored on a breakaway.
Twenty-five seconds later, Goodrow — New York’s overtime hero from Game 2 — put a shot past Bobrovsky to give the Rangers their first lead.
But the Panthers stuck with the Rangers. Reinhart got Florida right back in the game, beating Shesterkin with a backhand shot for the second time on a power play with 5:13 left in the first period.
The Rangers appeared to pull away in the second period. Lafreniere matched Reinhart with his second goal of the game, working the puck past Florida defender Dmitry Kulikov and putting the Rangers ahead 3-2 with 4:37 left in the second period.
While defender Jacob Trouba was serving a four-minute penalty, Goodrow scored his second goal of the game to put New York ahead 4-2. The Rangers killed off the four-minute penalty on Trouba, but the Panthers were not going to go down without a fight. After being kept off the board in the second period, they scored twice in the third period to send the game to overtime.
“I just thought you find the guys that are going partway through the game, and sometimes you’ve got to throw them together,” Maurice said.
Florida lost Sunday’s game despite dominating New York for parts of it. The Panthers had 108 total shot attempts to the Rangers’ 44, according to the hockey analytics site Natural Stat Trick.
“It’s not fun, for sure,” forward Anton Lundell said. “It’s the playoffs, you know? You have to look through the game and move on. It’s a long series, and you can’t get stuck on one game or one stage. You need to move on, and that’s what we’re going to do now.”
The Panthers will try to even the series again in Game 4 on Tuesday at 8 p.m. in Sunrise.
“Sometimes you want to keep the growl,” Maurice said. “A lot of times in the playoffs, you’re making sure that you keep that energy full. You cut off your losses and you let it go. Then there’s times you want to keep it and eat it and let it burn for a while and find a different kind of energy source.”
