In New York the visiting Florida Panthers scored off a non call in their defensive zone to snap a 2-2 tie with the Rangers and go on to a 4-2 win on Monday night.
Ryan Lomberg hit for the winner at 6:11 of the third period.
“I pick the puck up and had a little bit of space to skate it in,” Lomberg said. “Threw it in between Trouba’s legs there, and obviously, it found the back of the net.”
The shot floated and nicked the Rangers’ Jacob Trouba’s skate.
“Once they got the lead, they clogged down the neutral zone a lot and we needed to move the puck quicker,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said. “I don’t think we did a very good job at that once they got the lead. We didn’t get in there and sustain pressure.”
Sergei Bobrovsky made 26 saves in the win.
The Panthers moved to 42-16-4.
“What we’re trying to do this month, and I think we play 11 [games against] playoff teams this month and our schedule is heavy, is figure out different ways to win and talk about the different ways,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “Tonight, we figured out that we need to skate a certain way. Every opponent is different. Everybody will say, ‘We’ve got to play our game,’ and we do, but you’ve got to be able to adjust your game too. We’re trying to find different ways to adjust our game.”
Anton Lundell hit an empty net with 59 seconds left for the 4-2 final.
“When we’re playing well, we match up against anybody,” the Rangers Vincent Trocheck said. “It’s just a matter of us being able to change the way we’re doing things whenever something is not working. I think tonight, they did a really good job of staying on top of us, and whenever teams are able to do that, you’ve got to find a different way to get offensive zone time. We didn’t do a great job of that tonight.”
Will Cuylle scored off the power play in the opening stanza to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead after the first period.
Sam Reinhart hit for a pair of goals in the middle frame to give the Panthers a 2-1 lead.
He scored at 10:11 and 12″56 for the lead.
The Rangers dropped to 40-18-4.
Chris Kreider tied the game, 2-2 with the Rangers’ second power-play goal,
“I think we had some opportunities throughout the game to potentially take a hold of it,” Kreider said. “I think that we gave them a little too much time and space at times. Any success we had was from checking them tightly and closing and advancing pucks quickly.”
Igor Shesterkin made 25 saves in the loss.
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