Panthers win, on verge of Stanley Cup Final return
NEW YORK — The Florida Panthers are on the verge of going back to the Stanley Cup Final for the second straight year and third time in franchise history because they are finding ways to win close games.
Anton Lundell broke a tie with 9:38 left, and the Panthers beat the New York Rangers 3-2 on Thursday night in Game 5 of an Eastern Conference final in which the teams have been separated by one goal the past four games. Unlike the previous three, this one didn’t need extra time.
Gustav Forsling and Sam Bennett also scored, and Sergei Bobrovsky made 25 saves to help the Panthers — who lost to Vegas last year for the title — win their second straight in the best-of-seven series.
Bennett said the Panthers aren’t talking about a return trip to the Cup final. They are focused on one game at a time, although, the memory of last season is a positive.
“I think it helps a lot,” Bennett said. “Just to know the grind. How hard it is. How much it takes to have success — to make it this far — it takes a lot. We learned a lot last year.”
Chris Kreider and Alexis Lafreniere scored for the Rangers, and Igor Shesterkin made 34 saves in another magnificent effort. The Presidents’ Trophy winners need to win two straight to return to the final for the first time since 2014. Mika Zibanejad had two assists.
The Panthers can end the series Saturday in Florida. If a seventh game is necessary, it will be at Madison Square Garden, where the Panthers have won twice this series.
This is the first time the Rangers have faced elimination in the playoffs this season.
“There is nothing to say,” Rangers captain Jacob Trouba said. “Your back is against the wall. We have to bring our best game to survive another day.”
The go-ahead goal came after the Rangers lost the puck in the Florida end. Eetu Luostarinen got the puck and found Lundell at the Rangers’ blue line. His shot from the right circle beat Shesterkin.
While it appeared the puck was deflected, many of the Panthers gave veteran Vladimir Tarasenko credit for attempting to tip the puck in front of Shesterkin. They thought it might have affected the goaltender.
“We had chance after chance and just kept grinding,” said Lundell, who along with Luostarinen was stopped in close by Shesterkin on shots made between their legs earlier in the period. “We had some great chances. Finally we got the goal.”
Bennett added an empty-net goal with 1:52 left, and it proved necessary when Lafreniere scored with 50 seconds to play. The Rangers never got another shot.
“As the emotion increases in this series — the closer you get to the end, every single play, small play counts,” said Florida coach Paul Maurice.
Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said the series has been tight.
“We need to capitalize on some of the ones (chances) that we did generate and we weren’t able to do that tonight,” he said. “It was like I said, it was tight. The game was tight. I thought we had looks and I thought we had chances and they didn’t go in. Came down to one goal. So it’s a 2-1 game.”
Kreider and Zibanejad, who were scoreless in the first four games of the series, combined to give New York the lead with a short-handed goal at 2:04 of the second period.
Kreider broke up a Florida play at the blue line, nudged the puck to Zibanejad and then took a return pass entering the offensive zone and beat Bobrovsky with a nifty backhand move, evoking a roar that shook Madison Square Garden.
It was Kreider’s eighth goal of the playoffs and the Rangers’ sixth short-handed, tying the team postseason record set in 1978-79. New York went on to the Stanley Cup Final, losing to Montreal in five games.
Forsling tied it a little more than six minutes later, taking a perfect pass from Bennett and beating Shesterkin with a backhander that the goalie deflected but not enough to keep it out of the net. It was the defenseman’s fourth goal and 11th point of the playoffs.
Both teams had great chances in the scoreless first period with Bobrovsky stopping Filip Chytil and Vincent Trocheck in close, and Shesterkin turning aside Kevin Stenlund and getting a little help from a post on Bennett’s backhander from point-blank range.
The New York Rangers are in advanced contract talks to make former Pittsburgh Penguins coach Mike Sullivan their next head coach, sources told ESPN’s Emily Kaplan and Kevin Weekes on Thursday.
The deal is expected to be one of the richest coaching contracts in NHL history, the sources said.
Sullivan would head to New York in a move that is coming together three days after he left his job with Pittsburgh, where he coached for 10 seasons and won back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2016 and 2017.
The Penguins have missed the playoffs for the past three seasons amid a retooling of the roster.
David Quinn, Sullivan’s top assistant in Pittsburgh, is not expected to join him in New York. Quinn will be a candidate for other head coaching vacancies, including Pittsburgh’s, according to sources.
John Tortorella is a strong possibility to rejoin the Rangers organization. Sullivan, Quinn and Tortorella were on the coaching staff for Team USA at Four Nations.
In New York, Sullivan would replace Peter Laviolette, who was fired after the Rangers didn’t make the postseason for the first time since 2021.
Sullivan was selected by the Rangers in the 1987 draft but never played for New York, choosing to stay in college at Boston University before going on to an 11-year NHL playing career with four teams.
Sullivan, 57, previously served as a Rangers assistant coach from 2009 to 2013 on Tortorella’s staff. He also was the head coach of the Boston Bruins for the 2003-04 and 2005-06 seasons.
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Ryan S. Clark
Winnipeg Jets coach Scott Arniel said Thursday that star center Mark Scheifele will not travel with team ahead of Game 6 against the St. Louis Blues.
Scheifele will remain in Winnipeg after he missed the second and third periods of his team’s 5-3 victory Wednesday against the Blues in Game 5 of the Western Conference quarterfinals.
“You’re hoping for the best that maybe he wakes up today and things are better,” Arniel told reporters before the team flight to St. Louis. “But right now, he won’t be making the trip, and we’ll just go day-to-day moving forward.”
With 13:51 remaining in the opening period, the Jets were in the Blues’ zone when Scheifele had just played the puck along the half wall. That’s when he was instantly checked by Blues captain Brayden Schenn. Scheifele appeared to be concentrating on the puck and looked as if he did not see Schenn, who connected with the top half of Scheifele’s chest and knocked him down to the ice.
Schenn was given a two-minute minor for interference and another two-minute minor for roughing.
A little more than 10 minutes later, Scheifele was involved in another physical sequence. He was just about to reach the Blues’ zone when forward Radek Faksa also checked him and appeared to have struck Scheifele in the same area as the previous hit from Schenn.
Scheifele finished the first period, but Arniel spoke to the officials as both teams were entering the dressing room before first intermission. Blues coach Jim Montgomery confirmed with reporters after the game that Arniel spoke to the officials about the Schenn hit before sharing his thoughts.
“Let’s make it clear: Fifty-five got hurt from the Faksa hit,” Montgomery said. “He played six minutes after the Schenn hit. He didn’t come back after he got rocked by Faksa.”
Upon hearing Montgomery’s comments, Arniel had some thoughts of his own.
“I didn’t know Monty got his medical degree and can say how our player got hurt. He’s way off base and should not make that comment,” Arniel told reporters. “There’s some things that have been going on in this series and that was a repeat of what we’ve seen before: A player leaving his feet and then hitting a player in a very unprotected spot. Like hitting him in the sense, almost blindsiding him. Not happy with how the call was made. A two-minute minor. Not even looking at it is what I was upset about.
“It is something we have talked to the league about for five games.”
On Thursday, Arniel was asked if Scheifele was in concussion protocol.
“I’m not going down that road,” Arniel said.
It’s possible that the Jets could once again turn to Vladislav Namestnikov like they did in Game 5 and elevate him to the top line. The second-line center would take Scheifele’s place on the first line alongside Kyle Connor and Gabriel Vilardi.
Namestnikov, who had 11 goals and 38 points in 78 regular-season games, had his strongest game of the postseason in Game 5. He finished with a goal and two points while logging 17:15 of ice time.
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