In New York, Artemi Panarin hit for a double in regulation, and scored the deciding marker on penalties for a 4-3 win to the Rangers over the visiting Florida Panthers on Saturday night. 
Igor Shesterkin made 27 saves in the win.
Rangers improved to 47-20-4 off their seventh win in the last nine matches.
Panarin has 99 points points on the season off 43 goals.
The Panthers took a 1-0 lead in the opening stanza on a goal by Matthew Tkachuk at 8:18, scoring a deflection at the front of the crease.
The Panthers pushed the lead to 2-0 when Eetu Luostarinen scored with 21 seconds gone in the middle frame. The goal certainly took much of the air out of Madison Square Garden.
“In the second period down two goals, you need to have a spark, you need to score that next one,” the Rangers Vincent Trocheck said. “To go down three would be a massive hole to climb out of against a team like that.”
The Rangers’ Adam Fox inflated the building when he scored off a writer from the mid slot to trim the deficit to 2-1.
“You definitely saw us gain a little momentum,” Fox said. “After that it seemed like we started generating, started playing in their end, causing some turnovers. We really got some life from it.”
The goal came at 6:22 off a power play.
Panarin then hit off a wicked one-timer from the left boards to tie the game, 2-2, at 8:23 of the second.
Trocheck sent a no-look pass to Panarin from the high slot for the perfect set up.
“That’s a big win,” Trocheck said. “Two of the better teams in the East. These games are huge late in the season, get you geared up for the playoffs. This is the style of hockey that we’re going to need to play. It goes a long way when you’re able to beat these teams like these guys, Boston, teams that are at the top of the League.”
The Panthers dropped to 45-20-5 off their fourth straight loss.
In the third, the Panthers reclaimed the lead when Carter Verhaeghe hit at Verhaeghe at 15:52, scoring off a shot from the right circle.
Again, the building was deflated, but Panarin restored the energy when he tied the game, 3-3, with a shot from the left circle that found its way through traffic.
“If I see an open guy I’ll always pass it, but I just shoot no look, especially in that moment, and thank God the puck bounced 10 times and went in,” Panarin said.
The extra session solved nothing and Panarin won it with his marker on skills.
“I usually don’t know what I’m going to do before a shootout, just try to figure it out in the moment,” Panarin said. “I was a little confused in the beginning and just found a hole after.”
Sergei Bobrovsky made 34 saves in the loss.
“We were anchored right,” Maurice said. “Our leadership, the guys in the room, was fantastic. The bench was right. I look at everything from a regulation point of view, did you win or did you lose because there’s no 3-on-3 and there’s no shootout in the playoffs. We came in on the road banged up and I wouldn’t say riding a whole lot of confidence and we looked pretty good tonight. I’m pretty happy.”
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