Panarin’s brace and penalty shootout helped beat Florida. Artemy is one step away from 100 points for the season
Elena Kuznetsova March 24, 2024, 06:46 Moscow time Audio version: Your browser does not support the audio element.
The Rangers regained the lead in the East.
The Rangers avenged their home loss to Florida in early March and earned a resounding victory on the ice at Madison Square Garden, 4-3 B.
Note that the Panthers entered the game without their leading center Alexander Barkov, who will miss the second game due to injury, as well as without three main defensemen: Aranon Ekblad, Gustav Forsling and Dmitry Kulikov (the latter continues to serve his suspension) . The Rangers were without Ryan Lindgren, Jacob Trouba, Filip Chytil and Blake Wheeler due to injuries.
In the first half, Matthew Tkachuk opened the scoring by putting his stick under Josh Makhura’s shot, and early in the second half, Eetu Luostarinen converted a two-on-one, finishing off a pass from Sam Rinehart.
A few minutes later, Adam Fox reduced the deficit by hitting Sergei Bobrovsky on the power play, and Artemi Panarin soon tied the score with a one-timer from the left faceoff circle.
Video rights belong to NHL Enterprises, LP. You can see it on the NHL website.
In the third period, Florida took the lead again thanks to the efforts of Carter Verhaeghe, but on the next inning Panarin scored a double. His shot bounced through traffic, past Bobrovsky and into the goal. With each new goal, Artemy updates his personal sniper record: he has currently scored 43 goals. Thus, he caught up with Nathan MacKinnon on the sniper list and now shares fifth place with him. In the last two games he scored five goals, before scoring a hat-trick against Boston.
Additionally, the Rangers forward placed fourth in the scoring race, ahead of David Pastrnak, and came close to reaching the 100-point mark for the season. As part of the Rangers, for which Panarin has played since 2019, the Russian always scored at least 90 points (not counting the shortened season that started later due to Covid), and was closer to the anniversary mark in the 2021 season/ 2022. when he scored 96 points. He now has 99 points and the Rangers have 11 games left in the regular season.
2 Video rights belong to NHL Enterprises, LP. You can watch the video on the NHL website.
Neither regulation nor overtime were enough to determine the winner, and only in the penalty shootout did the Rangers put pressure on their opponents. On the home team were Mika Zibanejad and Panarin, who scored the winning shootout (but it does not count as a hat-trick). For Florida, Rinehart scored the only goal and Vladimir Tarasenko, who kicked the last one, did not convert his attempt.
Video rights belong to NHL Enterprises, LP. You can see it on the NHL website.
Panarin was recognized as the first star of the match, and the duel of the Russian goalkeepers this time was in the hands of Igor Shesterkin, who repelled 27 of 30 shots. This game was important from a tournament point of view: the Rangers, Florida, Boston and Carolina are fighting for victory in the Eastern Conference. The East winner will likely avoid facing Cup-tested Tampa in the first round, which occupies the top wild-card spot.
