The Rangers’ season could come to an end this weekend in Sunrise.
That happened Thursday night at Madison Square Garden, as the Panthers dominated in the final period to win, 3-2, and take a 3-2 series lead with the Eastern Conference finals heading back to Florida.
The Rangers will face elimination for the first time this postseason in Game 6 on Saturday at Amerant Bank Arena.
It shouldn’t be surprising that they found themselves in this situation after failing to find an answer for the Panthers’ dominant offense.
Even though the Rangers had the majority of the puck in this game, they weren’t as threatening as Florida throughout the game.
That’s how this conference finals unfolded.
The Panthers controlled most of the offensive zone.
And if the Rangers can’t solve it, their season will end there.
Coach Peter Laviolette had to field different lineups for each game following the Game 2 loss and an injury to Jimmy Vesey, but that didn’t matter considering how the Rangers looked as a team against Florida.
It became clear just how hard the Rangers would have to work to advance.
Florida scored twice in the third period, including a goal from Sam Bennett, before pulling within one when Alexis Lafreniere tucked in a Mika Zibandeged shot with under a minute left. The comeback was too little, too late.
The Rangers’ penalty kill, a strength for much of the playoffs, was scoreless through the first 20 minutes but came into its own in a big way at the start of the second period.
When Kendre Miller went into the penalty box to receive his second penalty of the game, Chris Kreider intercepted a pass from the Panthers forward and set up a short-handed rush for the Rangers, a day after Matthew Tkachuk joked to reporters that throwing his mouthguard at the Rangers forward in Game 4 was the best play of the game.
Kreider passed to Zibanejad, raced up the ice, recovered the puck on a pressure breakaway and scored his first goal of the series with a backhand shot to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead.
It was the Rangers’ NHL-leading sixth shorthanded goal of the postseason, but it was an even more encouraging sign for a penalty kill that has struggled against Florida’s power play this series.
The Rangers’ PK had allowed just four goals in their first 11 playoff games, but had given up five goals to the Panthers in the three games prior to that.
The lead lasted just over six minutes until Bennett made a deft no-look pass to Gustav Forsling, who evaded two Rangers defensemen and backhanded the puck past Igor Shesterkin to tie the game.
The Rangers came out at a fast pace and managed to keep the puck in their possession much more than they had in the previous two periods of Game 4, but they still committed a lot of turnovers and defensive blunders in their own half.
But it wasn’t enough for the Panthers to capitalize, as Shesterkin made eight saves and held them scoreless in the first period, finishing with 34 points on the night.
