Sergei Bobrovsky made 24 saves, and some history, in the Florida Panthers 3-1 victory over the New York Rangers as the Cats opened a three-game road trip by capturing two points at Madison Square Garden.
Bobrovsky posted career win number 400, reaching the milestone in 707 games, faster than Rangers great Henrik Lundqvist, who hit the mark in 727 games.
After getting bludgeoned by Minnesota in their last outing, the Panthers started fast, opening the scoring just 44 seconds into the game when Sam Reinhart dispossessed Adam Fox of the puck, received a poke pass from Eetu Luostarinen and then centered to a wide-open Anton Lundell in front. Lundell calmly redirected Reinhart’s pass up and over Igor Shesterkin for his fifth of the season.
Carter Verhaeghe (finally) lit the lamp 1:58 later to give Bobrovsky all the goal support he would need. Gustav Forsling stepped in from the left point to force a turnover and Verhaeghe collected the puck and beat Shesterkin’s glove far-side, off the post and in, from the circle to end an eight-game goalless drought.
Fox redeemed himself for the first goal against by pinching in and absorbing a hit from Mackie Samoskevich along the boards before sending a gorgeous centering pass to Alexis Lafreniere, who cut back across the top of the crease to easily solve Bobrovsky, who was moving the other way, on the backhand to halve the deficit at the 4:44.
Bobrovsky would make a glove save on Jonny Brodzinski, deny Filip Chytil twice and then come up with two huge stops on Chris Kreider on the door step to get his team out of the period with the lead.
To restore a two-goal lead, the buzzing Cats worked the puck back to the point, Dmitry Kulikov crossed to Niko Mikkola, who slapped a shot towards goal that Sam Bennett deflected home 6:59 into the middle frame. That’s a six-shooter for Yosemite Sam!
The rest of the night belonged to Bobrovsky, who made 12 more stops including this incredible toe save on former Panther Vincent Trocheck, right before Bennet’s goal, to backstop his team to its fifth win of the season.
A big bounce-back win after a subpar performance against the Wild for first place Florida. They will rest today before facing the New York Islanders tomorrow night at UBS Arena.
Bulls & Bears
- Sergei Bobrovsky became the 14th goaltender in NHL history to hit 400 wins. He made eight high-danger saves over the first forty minutes to help the Cats hand the Rangers their first regulation loss.
- Sam Bennett scored for the third consecutive and leads the club with six goals. Bennett finished the game with a plus-two rating and was credited with three shots, a hit and a block.
- Setting up Anton Lundell’s game-opening gave Sam Reinhart at least a point in seven of Florida’s first name games. Reinhart (13 points) is tied with five other players, including Panarin, for second in the league in scoring.
- Florida out-chanced the Rangers 26-18 at 5-on-5 and killed off all four of New York’s power-play opportunities.