Rangers refuse to go into the tank in win over Panthers
Igor Shesterkin of the Rangers defends the net during the second period against the Florida Panthers at Madison Square Garden on Sunday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Two years ago, the Rangers and Florida Panthers faced each other in the Eastern Conference finals. Now, the Rangers, who missed the playoffs last year and started dismantling their team in midseason, have already been eliminated from playoff contention. And the Panthers, bedeviled by injuries all season, are on the verge of joining them in the draft lottery.
So in a low-stakes matinee matchup at Madison Square Garden Sunday, the Rangers shrugged off a slow start and won their second straight game, beating the Panthers, 3-1.
Adam Sykora, Conor Sheary and Adam Fox had the goals, and Igor Shesterkin made 27 saves to earn the victory.
The Rangers entered the afternoon tied for the second-fewest points in the league with Chicago, by virtue of having beaten them on Friday, a victory that dropped them below their fellow Centennial Season club in the draft order, based on a tiebreaker.
With Chicago finishing up its four-game road trip Sunday night in New Jersey, the Rangers started the game looking like a team that had second thoughts about winning Friday night and was more interested Sunday in improving its odds of getting a top-2 pick in this summer’s draft. They were outshot 15-4 in the opening period and only some excellent goaltending by Shesterkin managed to keep the game scoreless.
The Rangers were much better in the second period, and eventually took the lead in the third on Sykora’s goal at 5:10. It was the Panthers, though, who appeared to score first, when a turnover led to a two-on-one break that saw Carter Verhaeghe set up Matthew Tkachuk for an apparent goal at 3:26. But the Rangers challenged the play, alleging Tkachuk was offside entering the zone and the replay was pretty clear. The video review didn’t last long before the goal was overturned.
The Rangers took advantage when Fox flipped a shot into a crowd of bodies in front of the net and Sykora redirected it in to open the scoring.
They made it 2-0 when, with Jonny Brodzinski in the box serving a slashing penalty, J.T. Miller stole a puck in the neutral zone and sent a pass to Sheary, who’d just come off the bench, and he fired a shot past Sergei Bobrovsky at 11:14. It was Sheary’s fourth goal in 11 games.
Fox added an empty-netter, from his own end boards, with 3:54 remaining, to make it 3-0, before Mackie Samoskevich scored a fluke goal with 40.2 seconds left to spoil Shesterkin’s shutout bid.
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
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