In Sunrise Saturday night, the New York Rangers’ Kevin Shattenkirk scored his second goal of the game at 1:08 of extra time to send the Rangers to a 5-4 win, their straight, over the Florida Panthers.
“The ice was a little choppy at the end of the game there, so I just wanted to make sure I settled it down and got my head up,” Shattenkirk said. “I figured at that point I know he’s a pretty aggressive goalie, so I figured I might have that far side.”
The goal came off a crisp pass from Rick Nash driving down the left wing.
“We’re on our way,” Shattenkirk said. “We don’t want to sit back and think that we’re in the clear here. We have to make sure that we’re building. We played some good teams here on the road and we played some great games. We just have to keep this effort consistent and we’ll start getting a lot of wins.”
Nick Holden, Michael Grabner and Nash scored in regulation as the two teams traded goals throughout the match.
“It feels like we’re finding our groove,” Nash said. “We’re coming together in those late points of the game, especially giving up a goal (late). We stuck with it. We got two good road overtime wins.”
Henrik Lundqvist made 30 saves but looked sketchy at times including the game-tying goal with Florida icing an extra attacker; Vincent Trocheck forced the extra period with a wrister from the right wing circle.
“It was a good game, two teams that battled hard and back and forth,” Lundqvist said. “They had a lead a couple of times, we had a lead and then we found a way. I thought we played a really strong game, had good looks. Obviously when they tie it up that late, it’s important to stay focused and not overreact to it and guys go out and make a big play in overtime.”
Colton Sceviour struck twice and Keith Yandlescored for the Panthers in regulation.
“We’re looking forward to (the road trip),” Panthers head coach Bob Boughner said. “Obviously, there’s been some frustrations with the last few. Sometimes the road is a good thing.”
It was the third straight win for New York.
“Tonight we realized early on that it was a really tight game in the first period and our defense was going to have to chip in and be the fourth and fifth guy on the attack and make sure that we’re chipping in as well. I think we did a really good job of getting more aggressive from the second period on,” Shattenkirk said after the win.
[WATCH: All Rangers vs. Panthers highlights]
Roberto Luongo took the loss in his return from injury; he made 39 saves.
“Not great,” Luongo said. “My timing was a little bit off. I only had one full practice. I wasn’t as sharp as I would have liked to have been. I knew what I was getting into. I didn’t impact much, but (I) knew I wanted to play tonight.”
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