The final minutes of the game were played out against a shrill soundtrack of desperation, pleading, hoping and begging, until 10 minutes and 22 seconds into the third period, Anton Randle slipped past Igor Shesterkin to steal the puck, stunning 18,006 anxious fans and briefly silencing their voices to give the Florida Panthers a 2-1 lead.
The Panthers still had the most difficult part of the night — the final 9 minutes, 38 seconds — left to hold off the Rangers, hold off Madison Square Garden and hold off everyone who refused to believe the season could be in such jeopardy.
On both sides of the ice, both teams — in blue sweaters and white sweaters — were playing every inch of this game as if it were Game 5, a game that would decide the series. Players were laying down at every opportunity to catch lightning-fast slapshots. For every puck that went into the corner, five or six players chased it as if a winning Powerball ticket was hidden inside.
And the cheering got louder. More desperate. How many times this season had the Rangers, up and down, evenly matched late in a game, forced overtime and won a point, maybe two? Surely they could do it again. Shesterkin ran away from the net. One last time, the game was on.
And the Panthers scored again. 3-1.
Still, it didn’t matter. There was a timeout, a regroup. The Rangers came back. Shesterkin missed the goal again. And then Alexis Lafreniere was in front of the goal and headed in Mika Zibanded’s shot. It was 3-2. Just over 49 seconds left.
No one wanted to think about what it would mean for the 49-man roster to be empty, that with the Stanley Cup Final looming and coming maddeningly close to winning the Cup, this might be the last time they’d all be together here this spring. Here shesterkin was again.
Again it was 6-5.
The actual result was 18,012 to 5.
That doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter. Too many times this year, the Garden has felt like an impregnable fortress for major teams. Then the Knicks got thumped in Game 7 by the Pacers. Now the Rangers got thumped in Game 5 by the Panthers. If the Rangers want a Garden mulligan, a Garden do-over, they’ll have to replay the series on Saturday night in Sunrise, Fla.
5 losses. Jason Senesu, New York Post
If not, there’ll be no Billy Joel shows at the Garden until next October.
“It was a close game again,” Zibanejed lamented.
“Every game is so close,” said Chris Kreider, whose short shot 2:04 into the second period gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead. Everyone in the Garden seemed to exhale for the first time in an hour. The volume was turned up to 11 as they took to the rink with “Won’t Get Fooled Again” playing.
There may have been years when this theme song would have been strangely, cruelly fitting for the Rangers and their fans. But this year was different from the start. The Rangers started fast and finished fast. They won their first seven playoff games. There was no chicanery, no silliness.
No. Not on Thursday night. We’ve been making the 1994 comparisons for months. Fine. Now, let’s make another important comparison: Why go on the road for Game 6, win one and then another to compete for the Cup? This time the distance is longer, and there are planes involved as well as tunnel tolls. The stakes are just as high as ever.
“We just have to keep getting the puck and our bodies to the net,” Kreider said, “and hopefully, everything will fall into place.”
Of course, Shesterkin played great, blocking 34 of 36 shots, and there’s no reason he won’t do the same on Saturday night. But Sergei Bobrovsky has also been very good. The Rangers allowed nine fewer shots against him on Thursday. That needs to be different in Game 6.
“I thought in the third period they came on, they got opportunities off the rushes, they got opportunities off the turnovers,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said, “and they went ahead.”
The game was over, the buzzer sounded, and the sound could be heard in the ominous silence of a rapidly emptying arena. There was nothing left to see tonight. Now the Rangers needed to recreate 1994 one last time, and with emotion, to make sure there was something worth watching on Monday night.
