The Panthers represented a major test that the pre-trade-deadline Rangers failed twice.
But after getting reinforcements for a crucial stretch of the season, however, the Blueshirts finally passed the Florida examination to become the front-runners for the Presidents’ Trophy.
A significant benchmark was reached when Mika Zibanejad and Artemi Panarin scored in the shootout to secure a 4-3 victory for the Rangers, who rallied from an early two-goal deficit against a ferocious Florida team to collect their 97th and 98th points of the season in front of an exuberant Madison Square Garden crowd on Saturday night.
“That’s a big one,” said Vincent Trocheck, who posted a three-assist night. “Two of the better teams in the East. These games are huge late in the season, get you geared up for the playoffs. This is the style of hockey that we’re going to need to play. It goes a long way when you’re able to beat these teams.”
There is now only one team — the reigning Stanley Cup champions, the Golden Knights — that the Rangers have not beaten this season.
Every other club has suffered a loss at the hands of the Rangers, who are coming together at the right time despite two major injuries affecting their lineup.
This was a resilient Rangers win through and through.
Despite playing without Aleksander Barkov, Aaron Ekblad, Gustav Forsling and Ryan Lomberg, the Panthers were still a handful.
They jumped out to a 2-0 lead just 21 seconds into the second period and also notched a go-ahead goal from Carter Verhaeghe with 4:08 left in regulation.
The Rangers not only scored twice in the span of just over two minutes to even the score at two-all in the middle frame, but Artemi Panarin continued his torrid scoring pace and netted the equalizer — his second in regulation — 43 seconds after the Panthers’ score to ultimately force overtime.
“He had another monster game,” head coach Peter Laviolette said of Panarin, who followed up a hat trick against the Bruins with a two-goal performance and a shootout winner against the Panthers. “He’s so dangerous. He’s leaving everything out on the ice. He comes back to the bench and he’s completely gassed. He gives it all every shift. He’s playing his heart out.”
The second period looked like it was going to just be a continuation of the first for the Rangers, who took a bit of a beating in the opening 20 minutes as they fell behind 1-0.
Florida jumped out on an odd-man rush right away and Eetu Luostarinen buried a backdoor feed from Sam Reinhart to double its lead just 20 seconds into the middle frame.
When Kyle Okposo was called for tripping, however, the Rangers power play gave the home team the spark they desperately needed.
Adam Fox sent a sharp wrister past Panthers netminder Sergei Bobrovsky to cut the Panthers’ lead in half.
Laviolette then immediately deployed his barn-burning line in Jimmy Vesey, Barclay Goodrow and Matt Rempe.
The Rangers caught fire as Rempe landed hit after hit to the delight of those in attendance.
Swarming the Panthers’ zone, the Rangers worked to keep it in before Trocheck teed Panarin up for a one-timer that the Russian wing got all of to knot the game at 2-2.
“And the fans, too,” Panarin said of the momentum-swinging sequence, in which the emotion from the Garden crowd was palpable. “They gave the energy, too. Looked like we worked together, the whole building.”
