The Rangers finally broke through on the power play in the Eastern Conference finals.
The Blueshirts took a 1-0 lead over the Panthers when Vincent Trocheck scored with a numbers advantage early in the first period of Game 4 in Florida on Tuesday night.
The Rangers began the night in a tough spot, succeeding just 1-of-17 on the power play, and seemed destined for another power play failure, but things started to look up as time dwindled.
The Tigers took the lead with 20 seconds left after Anton Lundell committed a high-stick attack on Will Caille, but Adam Fox controlled the puck at the point and sent a pass along the near boards to Artemi Panarin, who was skating to the goal line.
Panarin quickly corralled the puck and sent a pass to an open Trocheck in the slot.
The forward took one touch and sent the puck over goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky’s head and off the bar for the goal at 8:51 of the period.
It was the Rangers’ first power-play goal of the series after starting eight straight games without a goal.
Mika Zibanded nearly added his second power play of the period with 3:21 left when a shot from the slot hit Bobrovsky, struck the crossbar and ricocheted in front of the goal for a lucky bounce for the Panthers.
“We’ve got to move the puck, we’ve got to move our feet,” Chris Kreider said Tuesday morning before Game 4 at Ameranto Bank Arena. “We’ve got to support the puck, we’ve got to win puck battles.”
Well, at least on this chance the Rangers won the puck and it ended with a beautiful goal.
