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.
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Greg Wyshynski
RALEIGH — Carolina Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said his players have to be smarter about retaliating against the Florida Panthers‘ trademark agitation.
“We know that’s how they do things,” he said on Wednesday, after Florida took a 1-0 lead in the Eastern Conference finals with a 5-2 win. “Find a way not to let that get to you. Stick to what is going to win us games.”
At issue for the Hurricanes in Game 1 was center Sebastian Aho‘s roughing penalty against Florida’s Anton Lundell at 6:59 of the first period, which negated a Carolina power play and led to Carter Verhaeghe scoring the first goal of the game on a Panthers’ power play. Aho took a swing at Lundell after the Panthers center cross-checked him. The referees whistled the retaliation but not the initial stickwork that provoked it.
“I mean, the first penalty is bad call, right? You’re going to have those. But that’s my thing: Retaliation penalties are not going to get it done,” Brind’Amour said. “We did a pretty good job with [retaliation], but it just takes one. That’s my point. You can’t have that one, because that really puts you behind the game and now it’s different.”
The Hurricanes are 5-0 when scoring first in the playoffs and 3-3 when they don’t. Carolina’s penalty kill had stopped 14 of 15 power plays at home and 28 of 30 overall in the playoffs until Game 1, when Florida went 2-for-3 with the man advantage.
“They made us pay. It’s a good team that knows how to score goals and finds way to win games when you make mistakes,” Carolina captain Jordan Staal said. “We’ve got to limit those mistakes.”
Another example of the Hurricanes’ retaliation, though a less costly one for Carolina, came in the third period when defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere deliberately shot a puck at Florida forward Brad Marchand. In this case, the Panthers got the worst of it, as Marchand was given a double minor for roughing and a 10-minute misconduct.
“Just heated. I was pretty pissed off. He tried to take a run at me. I shot the puck at him. We had a little [tussle],” Gostisbehere said.
After Game 1, neither Panthers players nor coach Paul Maurice would discuss the incident in detail.
“It happens. It’s what it is. I mean, we block shots all the time, so what’s the difference?” Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad said.
That attitude extends to the Panthers’ composure on the ice. While the Panthers have earned their reputation as an irritating, physical opponent — attributes that helped them win the Stanley Cup for the first time last season — they can dish it out and take it.
Look no further than the Florida crease in Game 1, where the Hurricanes crashed the net of goalie Sergei Bobrovsky with frequency. At one point, forward Andrei Svechnikov‘s hip collided with Bobrovsky’s head. But the goalie wasn’t knocked off his game and his team didn’t retaliate.
“It’s OK. It’s the playoffs. They try to get under the skin. I just focus on my things and try not to think about that,” Bobrovsky said after his Game 1 win.
Maurice praised his netminder’s composure.
“Sergei’s not a kid. He’s been through it. He’s been bumped. He’s just developed a skill set that it just doesn’t bother him,” the coach said. “No one likes getting elbowed in the head, but it won’t be the first time or the last time.”
Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals is Thursday night in Raleigh. The Hurricanes have now lost 13 straight games in that round of the playoffs, including five straight to the Panthers.
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