Jesper Boqvist scored twice and Sergei Bobrovsky made 33 saves to lead the Florida Panthers to an exciting 5-3 win over the New York Rangers at Amerant Bank Arena.
Eetu Luostarinen ended Florida’s two-game scoring drought when he deflected Gustav Forsling’s floater down and off the ice and into the net 3:04 into the game after the Rangers completely panicked with the puck after Igor Shesterkin stopped Sam Bennett.
The Panthers added another 2:17 later to go up by two. After taking a pass from Uvis Balinksis, Dmitry Kulikov curled from right to left and snapped off a wrister that pinged in off Mackie Samoskevich, who was screening in front.
The Rangers would finally get on the board with 5:35 left in the second period. After bursting into the offensive zone, Filip Chytil dished off to Brett Berard, whose wrister necessitated a kick save from Bobrovsky. Unfortunately, the rebound went right to Chytil and he slid it through Bobrovsky’s legs.
A pinching Ryan Lindgren tied the tilt with a nifty redirection of Adam Fox’s pass into the slot 1:52 later. The second assist on Lindgren’s second of the season went to Sam Carrick.
Boqvist would clean up in front after Shesterkin denied Anton Lundell’s wraparound chance to put the Cats back on top. Carter Verhaeghe jabbing at Shesterkin’s pad freed the puck, which came to Boqvsit, who fired home into the gaping net. Uvis Balinksis picked up the secondary helper on the play.
Verhaeghe would take an undisciplined tripping minor early in the third and the Rangers would cash in on the ensuing power play. A sharp passing sequence saw Vincent Trocheck go down to Artemi Panarin, who crossed to Chris Kreider alone in front of the Panthers net and he let a quick shot go to forge a 3-3 tie.
The fabulous Boqvist Boys would combine on what turned out to be the winning goal. Jesper bulled his way past K’Andre Miller before trying to stuff the puck by Shesterkin. He was denied, but the puck was cleared off the boards right to Adam, who let go of a shot that Shesterkin again foiled. Jesper was able to get to that rebound and forced it in with 8:22 left in regulation. Balinskis was credit with his second assist of the night.
Florida would kill off a late penalty on Matthew Tkachuk that saw the Rangers pull Shesterskin for a 6-on-4 advantage before Aleksander Barkov notched an unassisted empty-net goal to ice it with 37 ticks left on the clock.
A fine effort from the much-more engaged Panthers, who remember how to score and reclaimed sole possession of first place in the Atlantic Division with the win. It was meant to be after Jesper Boqvist’s first goal. The Panthers are 15-0-0 when leading after two periods this season while the Broadway Blueshirts are 0-16-1 when trailing after forty minutes. The Cats will get a couple of days off before continuing the homestand against the Carolina Huuricanes on Thursday.
Bulls & Bears
- Jesper Boqvist earned First Star honors for registering the second two-goal performance of his NHL career. He finished with a team-high four shots and notched his first game-winner of the season.
- Filip Chytil was the best player on the ice for the struggling Rangers. Chytil produced a game-high seven shots and was one of three players (Boqvist and Mackie Samoskevich were the others) to pot his seventh goal of the campaign.
- Second Star Sergei Bobrovsky is 8-2 in his past ten starts. Two of Bobrvosky’s saves came when he sprawled out to rob Will Cuylle’s initial shot and rebound attempt. Wow!
- With his primary assist on Chris Kreider’s goal, Artemi Panarin became the 14th Ranger to record 500 points for the franchise, and he was the fastest to do it, hitting the mark in 384 games.
- The Panthers beat Igor Shesterkin four times on 25 shots. Shesterkin now sports an 11-15-1 record.
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