SUNRISE, Fla. — The Rangers found what they needed in a 5-on-5 game on Friday night, defeating the Panthers and moving into a 1-1 tie in the Eastern Conference finals to head south.
But they have yet to gain any traction on the power play through six attempts in this series, something that will be essential if they are to advance to the Stanley Cup Final.
The Rangers won the first two rounds of the playoffs thanks to their power play, hitting a combined 11 of 35 attempts (31.4%) against Washington and Carolina.
But his scoreless performance in four hits, including a 1:25 second stretch on a 4-on-3 stretch on Friday, was cause for concern.
“They’re going at it with all four of them. It’s tough,” said defenseman Erik Gustafsson, who occasionally replaces Adam Fox on the top unit. “You have to be quick and quick, or it’s not going to be good. Putting the puck on the net is not a bad option, even if it’s a wrist shot from the blue line or in the corner. We have one of the best guys net-front.” [in Chris Kreider].
“I think when they forecheck hard, I have to get the puck to the net a little bit more. I think my breakouts can be a little bit better.”
The Rangers had their chances in Game 2, spending a total of 7 minutes, 14 seconds on the power play, including a fourth-on-three.
But in Game 2, they had just one high-danger chance every 5:49, per Natural Stat Trick, the same number they had in Game 1.
“We’re playing a really good team, they’re aggressive,” coach Peter Laviolette said. “We’re going to look at it and make some little adjustments. [trying] We’re going to make some tweaks to make things a little bit sharper, a little bit crisper, and then we’ll communicate with our staff and pass that information on to them.”
Last time out, the Rangers failed to score on the power play in three straight games before adjusting to allow Kreider to tie the game at 5-4 in Game 6.
The Rangers may need to make similar adjustments this time around to get things moving.
The Rangers have never played a playoff game at Ameranto Bank Arena.
The last time these two teams met in the postseason was in the first round in 1997. The first two games at Miami Arena were tied before Esa Tikkanen scored an overtime goal in Game 5 at the same venue to give the Rangers the series win.
Barclay Goodrow’s game-winning goal in overtime ended Sergei Bobrovsky’s 12-game playoff overtime winning streak and the Panthers’ 11-game playoff overtime win streak.
Bobrovsky tied Patrick Roy for the longest overtime winning streak by a goaltender in playoff history.
Both teams did not practice Saturday due to their trips to Florida.
