Rangers play spirited game in 2024 finale, but lose to Panthers 5-3
If the New York Rangers continue to compete like they did Monday, albeit in a 5-3 loss to the Florida Panthers at Amerant Bank Arena, they could very well snap out of their funk when the calendar flips to 2025.
That said, the end result is the end result. The Rangers (16-19-1) lost their fourth straight game and seventh in the past eight. They are now 4-15-0 in their past 19 games.
The Rangers never had the lead in the final game of calendar year 2024 after surrendering the first two goals in the first period. But they fought back to tie the game twice, including early in the third period. However, the defending Stanley Cup champions had the final answer, when Jesper Boqvist scored his second goal of the game with 8:22 to play in regulation and Aleksander Barkov scored an empty-net goal in the closing seconds.
“I thought we played well. Could’ve went either way. No moral victories at this point,” Rangers center Vincent Trocheck said after the latest loss. “If we play like that, we’ll have a good chance most nights.”
Filip Chytil, Ryan Lindgren and Chris Kreider scored for New York, which remains last in the Metropolitan Division. Artemi Panarin assisted on Kreider’s goal to become the fastest player to 500 points with the Rangers, doing so in his 384th game with them. Mark Messier held the previous Rangers record, reaching 500 points in 406 games.
Igor Shesterkin, who was pulled midway through a 6-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday, finished with 21 saves.
His counterpart, Sergei Bobrovsky, made 33 saves, including several Grade A stops among his 12 in the third period.
Eetu Luostarainen and Mackie Samoskevich also scored for the Panthers, who snapped a mini two-game skid and moved two points ahead of the Toronto Maple Leafs for first place in the Atlantic Division.
“We did enough to win the game, we did enough to lose the game. It is frustrating because you feel like you’re doing more good than you are bad out there,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said. “At the end of the day, it’s not showing on the scoreboard. That’s the business, it’s winning. It’s not good enough.”
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Florida Panthers 5 – New York Rangers 3
It was the Rangers’ first visit to Sunrise, Florida, since the Panthers defeated them 2-1 in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Final on June 1, ending their season on the process. And the Rangers’ start Monday was on par with how the conference final went last season.
They dug themselves an early hole, allowing two goals 2:17 apart early in the first period. Luostarainen tipped a Gustav Forsling shot past Shesterkin to make it 1-0 just 3:04 into the game. The scoring play took shape after a blind backhand pass by Mika Zibanejad in his own end was intercepted by Forsling. The Panthers defenseman then sent a quick shot towards the Rangers net and Luostarainen scored his sixth goal.
Then at 5:21, Kulikov wired a shot that was tipped by Samoskevich past Shesterkin’s glove to make it 2-0 in favor of the Panthers. The veteran defenseman glided from right to left inside the blue line, with a brief stutter step that crossed up Lindgren and Kreider, allowing Kulikov an open lane, and he took advantage.
The Rangers challenged, claiming Samoskevich interfered with Shesterkin. But the video review upheld the on-ice call and the Rangers were down 2-0 on the scoreboard and a man on the ice for the subsequent delay of game penalty.
Shesterkin made two huge point-blank saves, though, and the Rangers came up with an important penalty kill. Shortly after, Shesterkin did it again, this time at 5v5, stoning Adam Boqvist on a wide-open point-blank opportunity at 8:30.
From there, the Rangers settled in. And though they didn’t score before the period ended, the Rangers killed off another Panthers power play, had excellent scoring chances when Trocheck was denied on a short-handed break at the nine-minute mark and again at 14:10, when Chytil’s 2-on-1 snap shot from left wing was turned away by Bobrovsky.
And right before the horn sounded, Alexis Lafreniere ripped a right-wing shot off a set face-off play that Bobrovsky handled.
The Rangers carried that momentum into the second period, owning the puck and generating the majority of scoring chances. Chytil was flying, stopped on a dash up left wing at 1:30 and then hitting the crossbar on a power-play breakaway at 5:40. At 8:45, Brett Berard was all alone in front of the net, but wristed his shot wide of the cage.
All told the Rangers had five high-danger chances 5v5 in the second period and the Panthers had one. The Rangers had a 0.70 expected goals share 5v5 in the period, per Natural Stat Trick.
They were finally rewarded when the Rangers scored two goals 1:52 apart to tie the game late in the second period. It was Chytil who got New York on the scoreboard, slipping a rebound shot between Bobrovsky’s pads at 14:25. Chytil’s goal was his seventh of the season and first in seven games.
Lindgren then broke out of a 27-game goal drought, deftly redirecting a pass from Adam Fox when he cut to the net from left wing to tie the game 2-2 at 16:17.
But the Panthers woke up and answered back just 38 seconds later to retake the lead, 3-2. Jesper Boqvist buried a loose puck into an open net, catching Shesterkin down and with his back to the play after making two stops on a wraparound attempt. The Rangers thought Shesterkin had the puck frozen but Anton Lundell wedged it free before K’Andre Miller hammered the Panthers forward to the ice.
So, despite outplaying the Panthers by a significant margin in the period, the Rangers headed to the second intermission trailing by a goal.
Undeterred the Rangers evened things up again at 5:19 of the third period. The Rangers snapped an 0-for-22 power-play slump when Kreider wired a one-timer from between the circles high into the cage. Like Lindgren and Chytil, Kreider snapped a scoring schneid, his 12th goal was his first in 10 games.
Just three minutes later, Kreider nearly had another. However, Bobrovsky burst across his crease to deny Kreider’s power-play shot from right wing off a 3-on-2 rush to keep the score tied.
That save was one to be remembered when Jesper Boqvist chipped a rebound of his brother Adam’s shot past a diving Shesterkin at 11:38 to again take the lead, 4-3.
Bobrovsky was at it again, robbing Will Cuylle’s tip at the doorstep with three minutes left in regulation. But the Rangers had one more golden opportunity coming their way, when Florida’s Matthew Tkachuk flipped the puck over the glass for a delay of game penalty at 17:10.
Laviolette pulled Shesterkin for a sixth attacker to create a 6-on-4 power play. Though they had good zone time, Zibanejad missed the net twice on New York’s best chances, and Florida killed off the penalty. Barkov put the game away with a backhander into the empty net with 36.5 seconds to play.
Though far from perfect and not the desired result, it was the Rangers best effort in recent memory. But they’ll have to sit on yet another loss until they’re back at it again, Thursday at Madison Square Garden against the Boston Bruins.
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