Florida Panthers win in OT to even up series with New York Rangers at two games apiece
SUNRISE, Fla. — All of the shots and zone time and chances against finally caught up to the New York Rangers.
They had gone 4-0 in overtime contests in these playoffs entering Tuesday, but the Florida Panthers said no more in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Final.
Sam Reinhart netted a power-play winner 1:12 in OT, giving the Cats a 3-2 win to knot this series at two games apiece. Now they'll head back to New York for Game 5, which will be played Thursday at 8 p.m. ET at Madison Square Garden.
New York Rangers start fast
The Rangers responded to all the chatter about Florida's lopsided shot attempts in Game 3 by opening Game 4 with perhaps their best period of the series.
Head coach Peter Laviolette urged them to "get back to that mindset of attacking ice," with his team heeding that advice for at least 20 minutes.
The Blueshirts pushed the pace early to put the Panthers on the defensive and draw a pair of penalties. The first one resulted in a Vincent Trocheck one-timer from the high slot − a bar-down laser that put New York on top, 1-0, while snapping an 0-for-8 skid from the power play to start the series.
The PP looked as sharp as it had earlier in the playoffs when it was humming at a success rate well over 30%, with Mika Zibanejad and Alexis Lafrenière both hitting the crossbar on later opportunities that could have changed the complexion of the game.
Florida Panthers roar back
As good as the Rangers looked in the first period, the Panthers were even better in the second.
They dominated the middle frame while outshooting the visitors, 14-5, and winning the high-danger scoring chance battle by 7-0 margin, with six of those coming at five-on-five.
The Rangers reverted back to the passive style that nearly cost them Game 3, with Igor Shesterkin the only thing preventing Florida from putting up a crooked number. He made a series of difficult saves, including a couple to thwart grade-A looks for Carter Verhaeghe off the rush and a glove tip on Oliver Ekman-Larsson. But the Panthers eventually got the NHL's hottest netminder on a couple bouncing pucks and bad bounces.
The first came from Sam Bennett, who ripped a shot into Shesterkin's chest off the rush just as a Panthers' power play was expiring. The puck wasn't secured, though, with the rebound trickling to the side of the Rangers' net. That allowed Bennett to follow his own shot and jam it home to tie the score at 1-1 with 11:15 remaining in the period.
The Cats would take the lead just 3:31 later when Verhaeghe's fortunes finally turned. He batted a centering pass from Matthew Tkachuk out of the air for a power-play goal that gave Florida a 2-1 lead and would force the Blueshirts to play from behind in the third.
Alexis Lafrenière picks up slumping stars
After scoring a pair of goals in Game 3, Lafrenière was once again the Rangers' most visible threat on Tuesday.
He was robbed by the crossbar in the second period after wowing the crowd by dancing through the entire Panthers' penalty kill, but he earned another chance in the third and made it count.
The tying goal was setup by spinning backhanded pass from Adam Fox, with Lafrenière charging the far post for a backdoor redirect that made it 2-2 with 16:32 to play. It marked his seventh goal of the playoffs, which is tied for second on the team behind Trocheck's eight.
The Rangers have been relying on the 22-year-old for offense because their other top forwards have gone cold.
The top line featuring Chris Kreider and Zibanejad, in particular, has largely been negated in the matchup against Florida's top trio of Verhaeghe, Aleksander Barkov and Sam Reinhart. They spent much of the night hemmed in the defensive zone, with very little offensive pressure of their own.
Jack Roslovic moved back up into the right-wing spot next to Kreider and Zibanejad after a two-game hiatus, but it didn't produce the desired outcome. He was replaced by Kaapo Kakko in the third period, which yielded similar results.
Filip Chytil had occupied that 1RW position for the previous two games, but he was healthy scratch for Game 4. The Rangers felt that the 24-year-old, who missed more than six months of action prior to the playoffs due to complications from a Nov. 2 concussion, could use a breather after appearing in each of the first three games of the series.
That opened a lineup spot for Blake Wheeler, who made his first appearance since suffering a right-leg injury on Feb. 15 that required surgery. The 37-year-old veteran played a limited role on the fourth line with Barclay Goodrow and rookie Matt Rempe.
Vincent Z. Mercogliano is the New York Rangers beat reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Read more of his work at lohud.com/sports/rangers/ and follow him on Twitter @vzmercogliano.