In a race for the most disappointing qualifying series performance, the Florida Panthers are doing their level best to out pace the New York Rangers.
On Tuesday, the Panthers lost, 4-2, the second game of their series with the New York Islanders.
It wasn’t that close.
“You have to learn from some of the situations we put ourselves in,” Panthers coach Joel Quenneville said. “There are some positives. I thought, the first game (2-1 loss on Saturday), there’s a lot of positives to extract out of the game today. We did what we wanted to do when we began the game. We have to play with some composure in those pivotal moments. Momentum is key.”
The Panthers did hold leads of 1-0 and 2-1 on goals from Mike Hoffman and Alexsander Barkov but they were fleeting leads as the Isles responded.
Jordan Eberle scored the tie breaking goal in the second period to give the Islanders a 3-2 lead and then salted the game away for New York with a late marker in the third period.
“I looked at our first game and it was definitely a quiet night,” Eberle said. “We didn’t really give up much, but we didn’t create a lot either. Tonight, we wanted to make an impact. [Barzal] does such a great job of coming through the neutral zone and creating time for us. [Lee] is just such a bull down low on the puck. You see him a lot down there.
“It was good to see us start to contribute and create some offense. Hopefully, we keep it going.”
Semyon Varlamov made 24 saves to get the win for New York.
Matt Martin and Ryan Pulock also scored for the Isles.
“I liked our resiliency,” Islanders head coach Barry Trotz said. “We’ll have to do it again. Plain and simple. That’s where we’re at. … When all else fails, we’ve been desperate and committed to block a shot if we’ve needed to. Box out around the net. All those types of things where those are the details and little things that help you win.”
Game three of the series is set for Wednesday, noon eastern.
“Our main focus is on tomorrow now,” Pulock said. “This is all over with. Tomorrow is the biggest game of the series. They’re going to come with their best, and we have to be prepared here to bring our best. Just play our game.”
WATCH: All Panthers vs. Islanders highlights]
Sergei Bobrovsky made 30 saves in the loss.
“Just think about tomorrow’s game. This game is over,” Barkov said. “We know it wasn’t our best, we didn’t bring our best today. Tomorrow’s a new chance. We have to win that game. We have to have a mindset that we’re going to go in that game and put our best game of the series and play smarter.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.