SUNRISE, Fla. – The Florida Panthers have tied up the series at two games apiece after defeating the New York Rangers 3-2 in overtime in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference final on Tuesday night.
Rangers center Vincent Trocheck helped his team take a 1-0 lead with his fifth power-play goal of the postseason.
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It was a perfect shot after the puck was launched over Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovski’s head and into the net.
The Rangers were 0-8 during the power-play in this series before Trocheck drew first blood.
The Panthers were able to escape the first period down 1-0 after the Rangers missed multiple opportunities to extend their lead.
The Panthers were able to get one past Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin after Sam Bennett poked it past the line, tying the game 1-1 with 9:50 left in the second period.
It didn’t take the Panthers long to take the lead after Carter Verhaeghe caught a wild rebound and scored his ninth goal of the postseason, giving the Panthers a 2-1 lead with just over seven minutes in the second period.
The Rangers answered back after Alexis Lafreniere scored on a tap-in with 16:32 left in the third period, tying the game 2-2.
Neither team was able to score for the remainder of the third period as the game went into overtime for the third straight meeting.
Sam Reinhart — the NHL’s power-play goal leader this year — came through with his 65th and most important goal of the season 1:12 into overtime, and the Panthers topped the New York Rangers 3-2 on Tuesday night, evening the Eastern Conference Final at two games apiece.
“If he’s open, obviously, we want to look for him,” said Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov, who set Reinhart up for the game-winner.
With good reason. Reinhart has 31 goals on the man advantage this year, connecting on 32% of his power-play shots.
“I saw him wide open there, and I was pretty confident he was putting that one in,” Verhaeghe said. “He has an awesome shot and obviously he made no mistake on that one, and it was awesome.”
Verhaeghe and Sam Bennett also scored for Florida, which got 21 saves — and an assist — from Sergei Bobrovsky.
Vincent Trocheck and Alexis Lafrenière scored for the Rangers, and Igor Shesterkin stopped 37 shots.
“Overall, not the result we wanted,” Rangers forward Mika Zibanejad said. “It’s the best out of three. We go home and try to take care of Game 5.”
Blake Wheeler, playing his first game for the Rangers since mid-February, was called for hooking Barkov 59 seconds into the extra session. And it didn’t take long for the Panthers to cash in, with Barkov setting up Reinhart in front.
Matthew Tkachuk centered the puck from the right corner, and it deflected off Rangers defenseman Ryan Lindgren’s stick. Airborne, it bounced off Shesterkin, then off Lindgren’s upper body — and Verhaeghe, with more of a baseball swing than anything else, batted it out of the air for a 2-1 Florida edge.
Including playoffs, over the last two seasons, Florida entered Tuesday with an NHL-best record of 81-2-6 in games where it led after 40 minutes.
Lafrenière didn’t care. A neat spin move from Fox got him the puck on the left side of the crease and he tapped it home with 16:32 left for his third goal in the last two games.
New York had Florida reeling later in the first period, when Brandon Montour was in the box for cross-checking. Zibanejad was alone on the left side of the crease and shot toward a ton of open net, but the puck hit Bobrovsky’s shoulder, ricocheted up to the crossbar — and this time, bounced back into the crease, just off the goal line as the Panthers remained down only 1-0.
“We have a good feeling,” Bobrovsky said. “We’ve got good belief, good trust in each other here. We’ve got great atmosphere. And, yeah, it’s a fun challenge.”
Game 5 is Thursday in New York, where the teams split the opening two matchups in this series. Game 6 will be Saturday in Sunrise, and the Prince of Wales Trophy — awarded to the East champs — will be in attendance that night.
The puck is set to drop at 8 p.m. Thursday.
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