Rangers’ 45-minute effort not enough, lose to Florida

In Sunrise, the New York Rangers played a 45 minute game on Wednesday night, and it cost them a 4-3 loss to the Panthers.

Florida scored three times in the third period to erase a one-goal deficit and take a 4-2 lead.

Sergei Bobrovsky made 30 saves in the Panthers win.

Carter Verhaeghe gave Florida a 3-2 lead in the final frame after trailing 1-2 heading into the period.

“I was extremely happy for him,” Panthers head coach Andrew Brunette said. “It was a huge block and he scored a huge goal for us. I was proud of him. It was good to see him put his body on the line for the group and score a big goal.”

MacKenzie Weegar potted his first goal of the season for the Panthers.

The Panthers improved to 19-7-4.

“I’m proud of the way everybody battled tonight coming out of that break,” Weegar said. “It was pretty impressive by everybody. We knew it was going to be a little sloppy. We knew we had to manage the game well. And then in the third period, the Comeback Cats, I guess it’s just the thing that we do.”

Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad scored for the Rangers to give them the 2-1 lead through 40 minutes.

“I was real happy with the first two periods, obviously,” New York head coach Gerard Gallant said. “I thought it was a good game, both teams back and forth, good goaltending, good solid play from both teams. In the third, we got away from it and made a couple of mistakes and they ended up in the back of the next.”

The Rangers dropped to 19-8-4.

“Both teams played very hard,” Brunette said. “I don’t know how the sharpness of play was. What impressed me was the compete that our group had all the way through the game, even when you’re down in the third period. We just kept coming. That was a real good sign for our group.”

Anton Lundell and Anthony Duclair also scored for Florida.

Chris Kreider scored his 19th of the season with less than a minute on the clock, and the extra attacker on the ice to make the 4-3 final.