In New York, the Rangers discovered a long-lost offense, but the visiting Florida Panthers did the same and one extra in a 6-5 win Sunday afternoon after the skills competition.
“I thought it was an entertaining game,” Florida coach Joel Quenneville said. “I thought we got a lot of pucks to the net, that we had good presence at the net as well and got rewarded for a couple of goals. … We did some good things.”
Always easier to say that when you win.
“As has happened throughout the course of this short season, when we get some goals, all of a sudden our mindset continues to change,” Rangers coach David Quinn said. “We get very sloppy, we get very pond hockey-ish at times and if we trade chances with a team like that, rarely are we ever going to get a point.”
Sam Montembeault made 29 saves to get the win for the Panthers.
In a back and forth game, Brian Boyle scored early in the third period to tie the game, 5-5, and force the match into extra time which settled nothing.
Chris Kreider’s goal in the second period had given the Rangers a 5-4 lead.
“We’re showing glimpses and then we have a game like that where it was on a plate for us, it really was,” Kreider said. “We were up several times. … It needs to be more consistent.”
Evgenii Dadonov and Aleksander Barkov had goals for the Panthers.
“In a game like that, you have to keep moving forward and looking at the next shot and find your focus, and I thought he (Montembeault) did that and had real good composure as well.” Quenneville said.
Vincent Trocheck and Frank Vatrano scored in regulation and the skills competition.
“I think we just have confidence in ourselves that even when we’re down, we still have the confidence that we are going to come back and win the game … we showed it again tonight,” Trocheck said.
Ryan Lindgren scored his first NHL goal for the Rangers to stake them to an early 1-0 lead.
Brady Skjei, Filip Chytil and Kaapo Kakko also scored for the Rangers. Chytil’s goal came after a slick puck move around the Panthers defense.
[WATCH: All Panthers vs. Rangers highlights]
Henrik Lundqvist made 30 saves in the loss.
“When you’re that close, I feel like you lost [a point],” Lundqvist said. “It comes down to [the] shootout, it comes down to one save, and I wasn’t able to make two saves. That’s disappointing.”
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