Laviolette’s timeout refocuses Rangers in OT win
-
Kristen Shilton, ESPN NHL reporter
SUNRISE, Fla. — The New York Rangers needed a timeout.
Literally.
New York held a two-goal lead entering the third period in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals against the Florida Panthers on Sunday and the Panthers were taking it to their opponent. Florida was dominating New York in all three zones, and when the Panthers tied the game 4-4, Rangers’ coach Peter Laviolette knew his group had to take a breath.
He called for a stoppage. Talked things out on the bench. And New York went back to work with renewed vigor, leaning on a terrific performance from goaltender Igor Shesterkin to get out of that final frame tied. The Rangers went on to win 5-4 in overtime on Alex Wennberg‘s tally.
It was the Rangers’ second overtime win in a row. They lead Florida in the best-of-seven series 2-1.
“The third was probably our toughest go in the series so far,” Laviolette said. “We’re up 4-2, we’re under siege, they were able to capitalize, and that was by far their best period. It was a pretty even game going into the third period. They got [a goal], got another one, the building was into it. So it was moving in their direction. We came out of the timeout and had three or four good shifts in a row. But they got it into overtime. Shesterkin had to make a few big saves for us. And then [came] a big goal for us in overtime to win it.”
Shesterkin was the Rangers’ backbone in a vital road win. He put in his best performance of the postseason to steal the victory while Florida threw everything it had toward the net, edging the Rangers 38-23 in shots and outchancing them 94-35 in regulation.
Some saves were more impactful than others. Shesterkin made an incredible stop on Panthers’ forward Sam Reinhart with 35 seconds left in the regulation to get New York out of the third and into a fresh overtime slate.
New York is 4-0 in overtime in the postseason.
“[Shesterkin] was our best player tonight,” center Vincent Trocheck said. “When you have a guy back there like that, you have a lot of confidence in him. He stole this game late.”
Shesterkin put on a monstrous performance early in overtime as well to keep Florida at bay. That allowed Wennberg to come through the winner and give New York an advantage, while putting the Panthers in their first series deficit of the postseason.
“They had some good chances,” Wennberg said. “You need a goalie who can help out and [Shesterkin] did more than once or twice. He did that, and it’s a good feeling to have that goalie making a difference.”
New York was behind early in Game 3 because of its own disciplinary issues.
Braden Schneider went to the box for delay of game less than two minutes into the first period and Sam Reinhart immediately capitalized with a power-play goal to give Florida a 1-0 lead.
New York wouldn’t be in that deficit for long though, with Alexis Lafreniere and Barclay Goodrow scoring just 25 seconds apart midway through the frame to make it 2-1 Rangers.
It was Reinhart making New York pay with his second power-play goal of the night to tie the game 2-2 through 20 minutes. Reinhart’s two goals on the man advantage is tied for most ever by a Panthers’ player in a postseason contest.
That four-goal first period came after a combined six goals were tallied in Games 1 and 2. But shot attempts were 30-10 Florida in the first period, and 20-10 at even strength, only underscoring how valuable Shesterkin was to keeping New York in check. While Florida made good on its power-play tries, the Rangers couldn’t do the same.
They were 0-for-2 on the night with an extra man but benefited from Goodrow’s shorthanded tally that, along with a second goal of the game from Lafreniere, gave New York its 4-2 lead going into the third period.
That’s where the Rangers would be truly tested. The Panthers pushed hard and controlled play until they’d even things on the scoresheet. Florida was all over New York, scoring two goals from Aleksander Barkov and Gustav Forsling while outshooting the Rangers 13-4 and outchancing them 40-10.
Laviolette took his timeout. That’s when the mood shifted for New York.
“It’s an up-and-down game,” Trocheck said. “[In the third] period, they had the edge again. Our team is resilient. Going into overtime, anything can happen.”
Shesterkin stood tall in the extra frame to allow New York the chance to secure a victory. Wennberg came through in the clutch.
“Really good work by him in all zones. Really smart player,” Laviolette said. “Really committed. Gave us what we needed at the time and what we were hoping for.”
In the end, the Panthers attempted 108 shots on the Rangers, and it didn’t result in a win. Florida coach Paul Maurice hopes that helps his team bounce back in Game 4 on Tuesday.
“A lot of times in the playoffs you want to make sure you keep your energy and cut off your losses,” Maurice said. “And you let it go. Then there are times you want to keep it. And eat it. And let it burn for a while. And find a different kind of energy source. When you put up what we put up tonight and don’t come up with the win, you should be a little growly.”
LOS ANGELES — Shohei Ohtani hit two homers in an 11-5 win over the San Francisco Giants on Saturday night, emphatically ending the three-time MVP’s longest homer drought since joining the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Ohtani led off the bottom of the first with his 24th homer, hammering Landen Roupp‘s fourth pitch 419 feet deep into the right-field bleachers with an exit velocity of 110.3 mph.
The slugger had been in a 10-game homer drought since June 2, going 10-for-40 in that stretch with no RBIs, although he still had an eight-game hitting streak during his power outage.
Ohtani led off the sixth with his 25th homer, sending Tristan Beck‘s breaking ball outside the strike zone into the bleachers in right. He also moved one homer behind the Yankees’ Aaron Judge and Seattle’s Cal Raleigh for the overall major league lead.
Dodgers fans brought him home with a standing ovation as Ohtani produced his third multihomer game of the season and the 22nd of his career.
Ohtani reached base four times and scored three runs in his first four at-bats, drawing two walks to go with his two homers.
Ohtani hadn’t played in 10 straight games without hitting a homer since 2023 in the final 10 games of his six-year tenure with the Los Angeles Angels.
Ohtani had slowed down a bit over the past two weeks after he was named the NL Player of the Month for May with a formidable performance, racking up 15 homers and 28 RBIs.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
BOSTON — Hunter Dobbins had quite the week.
First, he said last weekend that he would rather retire than pitch for the Yankees because his father was drafted by New York twice before being traded.
Then, he went out and beat the Yankees.
A few days after his comments about never wanting to pitch for New York, he had to defend his dad’s story about being drafted by the Yankees in response to a New York Post article that cited multiple official databases and the Yankees’ own records that couldn’t confirm Lance Dobbins ever played with the organization.
On Saturday night, Dobbins (4-1) followed up by going six shutout innings in Boston’s 4-3 victory over New York, his second win over the Yankees in less than a week.
“It’s a lot of fun,” he said. “I’m more worried about just the win column, whether it’s against them or anybody. My job is to try and help this team win as many ballgames as we can, and pitch in meaningful playoff baseball games. That’s what I’m more focused on.”
But he realizes what it means to the fan base in this longtime rivalry, with the Red Sox fans heard chanting about the Yankees outside the park before he spoke in an interview room.
“Yeah, I love being able to perform and get those wins for the fans here,” he said. “They deserve it. It’s a great city, passionate fan base, so being able to get those wins — especially twice in one week — means a lot and looking forward to trying to build on that going forward.”
In his victory over New York last Sunday, Dobbins held the Yankees to three runs over five innings, two on a first-inning homer by Aaron Judge.
On Saturday night, Judge went 0-for-3 against him, striking out twice on curveballs.
“It was just kind of scouting,” Dobbins said of his game plan against New York’s slugger after Garrett Crochet struck him out three times in the series opener Friday.
“Crochet has an electric fastball. I can throw it hard, but the shape isn’t quite as elite,” he said. “So we knew we had better weapons to go at him with, so I felt like we did a good job of kind of keeping a balanced attack throughout the order.”
Dobbins struck out five and gave up only two singles Saturday.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Sports2 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut