NEW YORK—The Florida Panthers are on the verge of going back to the Stanley Cup Final for a second straight year and the third time in franchise history because they are finding ways to win tight games.
Anton Lundell broke a tie with 9:38 left, and the Panthers beat the New York Rangers 3–2 on Thursday night in Game 5 of an NHL Eastern Conference final where the teams have been separated by one goal each of the past four games. Unlike the previous three, this one didn’t require overtime.
With a 3–2 series lead, Florida will have an opportunity to advance in Game 6 Saturday night in Sunrise, Fla. If a seventh game is necessary, it would be Monday in New York, where the Panthers have won twice in this series.
Gustav Forsling and Sam Bennett also scored, and goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky made 25 saves to help the Panthers—who lost to Vegas for the title last year— win their second straight in the best-of-7 series.
Bennett said the Panthers aren’t talking about a return trip to the Cup final. They are focused on one game at a time, although the memory of last season is a positive.
“I think it helps a lot,” Bennett said. “Just to know the grind. How hard it is. How much it takes to have success—to make it this far. It takes a lot. We learned a lot last year.”
Chris Kreider and Alexis Lafreniere scored for the Rangers, and goalie Igor Shesterkin made 34 saves in another magnificent effort. The Presidents’ Trophy winners need to win two straight to return to the final for the first time since 2014. Mike Zibanejad had two assists.
Saturday will mark the first time the Rangers have faced playoff elimination this season.
“There is nothing to say,” New York captain Jacob Trouba said. “Your back is against the wall. We have to bring our best game to survive another day.”
The go-ahead goal came after the Rangers lost possession in the Florida zone. Eetu Luostarien got the puck and found Lundell at the New York blue line. His shot from the right circle beat Shesterkin.
While it appeared the puck was deflected, many of the Panthers gave veteran Vladimir Tarasenko credit for attempting to tip the puck in front of Shesterkin. They thought it might have affected the goaltender.
“We had chance after chance and just kept grinding,“ said Lundell, who along with Luostarinen was stopped in close by Shesterkin on shots made between their legs earlier in the period. ”We had some great chances. Finally, we got the goal.”
Bennett added an empty-net goal with 1:52 left and it proved necessary when Lafreniere scored with 50 seconds to play. The Rangers never got another shot.
“As the emotion increases in this series, the closer you get to the end, every single play, small play, counts,” said Florida Coach Paul Maurice, whose team blocked 17 shots and had just one giveaway.
Rangers Coach Peter Laviolette noted how tight the series has been.
“We need to capitalize on some of the [chances] we did generate, and we weren’t able to do that tonight,” he said. “It was like I said. It was tight. The game was tight. I thought we had looks and I thought we had chances, and they didn’t go in. Came down to one goal. So, it’s a 2–1 game.”
Kreider and Zibanejad, who were scoreless in the first four games of the series, combined to give New York the lead with a short-handed goal at 2:04 of the second period.
Kreider broke up a Florida play at the blue line, nudged the puck to Zibanejad, and then took a return pass entering the offensive zone. Kreider beat Bobrovsky with a nifty backhand move, evoking a roar that seemed to have Madison Square Garden shaking.
It was Kreider’s eighth goal of the playoffs and the Rangers’ sixth short-handed, tying the team postseason record set in 1979. New York went on to the Stanley Cup Final that year, losing to Montreal in five games.
Forsling tied it a little more than six minutes later, taking a perfect pass from Bennett and beating Shesterkin with a backhander that the goalie deflected but not enough to keep it out of the net. It was the defenseman’s fourth goal and 11th point of the playoffs.
Both teams had great chances in the scoreless first period, with Bobrovsky stopping Filip Chytil and Vincent Trocheck in close, and Shesterkin turning aside Kevin Stenlund and getting a little help from a post on Bennett’s backhander from point-blank range.
