The two-week COVID break for the Florida Panthers seemed to help out in many different ways. It showed Wednesday night as the Florida Panthers continued to show why they were considered the ‘Comeback Cats’. Florida came back from another third-period deficit, beating the New York Rangers in 4-3 fashion.
It was the Panthers’ first game in 13 days and the Rangers’ first in 12 following the NHL’s extended Christmas break because of rising COVID-19 cases.
First Period:
The game started out very evenly in terms of shots, as they were even throughout the first half of the period. The Rangers got first blood when Jakob Trouba would set up a pass to Artemi Panarin, who went cross-ice and won the one-on-one battle with Aaron Ekblad, and eventually backhanded one between the legs past Sergei Bobrovsky. Panarin would have a goal and two assists on the night for the Rangers. It would also be Panarin’s ninth-straight game with a point against the Panthers.
The penalty kill seems to have improved for the Florida Panthers. Florida would kill two penalties in the first period, and three in total.
Second Period:
The Panthers would open up the second period drawing a hooking penalty on Ryan Strome. Despite the power play being killed off, the Panthers would tie the game at one, two minutes after. Anton Lundell scored off of a rebound of Gustav Forsling out in front. Mika Zibanejad would then answer at 12:43 in the second period to give the Rangers a 2-1 lead.
Third Period:
The Panthers started to pick things up in the third, scoring three goals in a span of 8:44. Eight Panther players would have points on those three goals. MacKenzie Weegar would tie the game at 5:56 when Maxim Mamin set up a perfect shot, which Weegar shot past Shesterkin. The Panthers would grab the lead midway through the third when Carter Verhaeghe would fire a shot from the top of the circle, which would find the net. Anthony Duclair would score the game-sealing goal at 14:40 when he would block a shot and lead a three-on-two, which he would score top corner to make it 4-2. The Rangers would pull Shesterkin with under three minutes left, and after the Cats missed a couple of empty-netters, the Rangers would cut the game back to one when Chris Kreider shot it opposite of Bobrovsky. However, this would be too little, too late.
So, Florida earned their NHL-leading sixth third-period comeback win of the season as they improved to 15-3-0 at FLA Live Arena.
Next Up:
The Panthers will be at home Thursday night to play the first-place Tampa Bay Lightning. Also, the Rangers will play their next two games against the Lightning.