NEW YORK — Coming off back-to-back road losses Friday and Saturday to Edmonton and Calgary, two of the top teams in the NHL, the Rangers found themselves returning home Monday night to face another heavyweight in the league-leading Florida Panthers, in their third game in four nights.
And if that wasn’t challenging enough, third line center Filip Chytil was unavailable to play, due to what the team was calling an upper-body injury.
But the Rangers, who’d looked so overmatched against Calgary in their last game, looked like a totally different team in this one, riding their special teams to hand the Panthers their first regulation loss of the season, 4-3 at Madison Square Garden.
The Rangers (7-3-3) got a power play goal from Chris Kreider and a shorthanded goal from Adam Fox in the first period, then got four-on-four goals from K’Andre Miller – a world-class, end-to-end rush – and Ryan Strome 30 seconds apart in the second to take control of the game.
Eetu Luostarinen’s goal off a goalmouth scramble 20 seconds into the third period got the Panthers on the board, but the Rangers, who had blown two two-goal leads on the road trip, weren’t about to blow this one. Igor Shesterkin, who had allowed all six goals in the 6-0 loss to Calgary in the last game, was back to his normal, brilliant self, making xx saves – including 17 in the second period alone – to improve to 6-2-2 on the season.
With Chytil out against the Panthers (10-1-1), Rangers coach Gerard Gallant was forced to reconfigure some of his line combinations, beginning with moving Barclay Goodrow from right wing on the top line, with Kreider and Mika Zibanejad, to Chytil’s spot centering the third line, between Alexis Lafreniere and Julien Gauthier. Sammy Blais, normally the third line right wing, moved up to take Goodrow’s old spot next to Kreider and Zibanejad.
While the changes were made out of necessity, Gallant had admitted at the morning skate that, even with everyone healthy, he still was searching for effective line combinations.
"Hopefully … when you get some different line combinations, you start to really like some stuff, and like the flow of your game,’’ Gallant said. "And we’ve got to get to that point.’’
The Rangers opened a 2-0 lead in the first period on Kreider’s power play goal at 7:52, a rebound of Zibanejad’s shot and his ninth goal of the season. Then, Fox scored his third goal of the season, shorthanded, with 5.9 seconds remaining in the period, and Kevin Rooney in the penalty box for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.
The Rangers had blown leads of 2-0 in Vancouver and 4-1 in Edmonton on the road trip, but they built on the lead this time. First, it looked like Panarin had scored to make it 3-0, off a brilliant pass from Kaapo Kakko, but the Panthers challenged the play, alleging goaltender interference. And after video review, it was determined that Strome had indeed interfered with goalie Spencer Knight, so the goal was disallowed.
But then Miller, the second-year defenseman, took a pass from Kreider at the bottom of the circle in the Rangers’ defensive zone and drove up the right wing boards, through the neutral zone, into the offensive zone, with speed. He cut around Florida defenseman Mackenzie Weegar, turned back to the slot, and, as he was falling to his rear end, lifted a forehand shot over Knight and into the top of the net for his first goal of the season. That goal, at 12:48 of the second, was legit, and did give the Rangers a 3-0 lead. Strome made it 4-0 when he finished a pretty, tic-tac-toe setup pass from Panarin at 13:18 for his second goal of the year.
