Goalie Henrik Lundqvist – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
SUNRISE (FL) – Henrik Lundqvist stopped 43 of 45 shots Tuesday night and became 10th on the all time wins list for a goalie. He is now the only goalie with at least 30 wins in 11 of his first 12 seasons (got 24 in 48 games in the shortened 2012 season) and passed Martin Broduer for most wins by a goalie in those first 12 seasons.
Though the Rangers played the majority of the game with a lead, no part of it was relaxing for Lundqvist.
“You have to stay engaged,” he stated. “Defensively they created a lot, we had to work hard in front of our own net.”
The Rangers, having just played the night before in an OT thriller against the Lightning, came out strong against a struggling Florida Panthers squad. The Panthers had lost four of their past five before hosting the Rangers who lead the league in away victories.
Chris Kreider opened up the scoring at 9:25 of the first period with a beautiful deflection off a bouncing shot from the point from Steven Kampfer. After the Rangers were able to keep the puck in, Zuccarello bought some time for the rest of his line mates to get back in the zone. Once Kampfer entered, Zucc dishes a topsy-turvy pass that was one-timed on net for the redirect.
Grinder Tanner Glass was playing in just his second game of the season after playing all year with the Hartford Wolfpack. A favorite from head coach Alain Vigneault, Glass was often in the lineup last year despite majority opinion from fans. This year there was simply no room with the amount of talent up front, but with injuries and a need of a wake up after the last couple of games, a shake up was due.
Glass netted the second goal of the game tonight off of great instincts and intuition when he was able to bang home a rebound in front. Glass finished plus-1 with a goal and an assist and helped the fourth line have an overall productive game. It was his first goal since last March, 2016 against the Florida Panthers.
“I thought that line played a great game” remarked head coach Vigneault. “They spent some quality time in the other teams end, they got us a couple of goals when they were on the ice. That line did what they had to do.”
Kevin Hayes broke out of his scoring slump when he notched his 16th goal of the year on a breakaway off of a breakout from Brady Skjei.
Thomas Vanek got his first goal as a Florida Panther after being acquired from the Detroit Red Wings 11:20 into the second period after a slight breakdown from the Rangers in their own zone. J.T Miller was unable to get the puck out and it bounced over to a wide open Vanek in front who beat the near-perfect Lundqvist blocker side to get his team on the board.
The Rangers fourth goal came from Nick Holden after some neutral zone passing from Glass and Oscar Lindberg found an all alone Holden at the point who walked it in to blast it home for his 10th of the year.
WATCH: All Rangers vs. Panthers highlights
The third period was even with back and fourth play up until Aaron Ekblad scored a power-play goal for the Panthers with a little over three minutes remaining to cut the score to 4-2.
Pavel Buchnevich for the Rangers got his eighth of the year on an empty net to seal the 5-2 victory.
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