NEW YORK _ Rangers coach David Quinn won't be happy with the way this game was played, and he'll certainly hate the bottom-line result.
Vincent Trochek, the final shooter, beat Henrik Lundqvist on a forehand shot to give the visiting Florida Panthers a 6-5 shootout victory over the Rangers in an afternoon game Sunday at Madison Square Garden. Frank Vatrano and Trochek scored in the tiebreaker for Florida, while Kaapo Kakko was the only Ranger to score. Artemi Panarin had his shot saved, and Tony DeAngelo's shot rang off the goal post.
The Rangers are 4-1-1 in their last six, and their overall record is 7-6-2.
Chris Kreider's power-play goal late in the second period had given the Rangers a 5-4 lead, but the Rangers couldn't make that stand up. A pair of former Rangers, Keith Yandle and Brian Boyle, combined to tie it at 5-5, when Yandle fired a shot from the left point and Boyle deflected it up and over Lundqvist for his third goal at 7:01 of the third period.
Lundqvist, making his third consecutive start following back-to-back wins over Detroit Wednesday and Carolina Thursday, made 30 saves in regulation and overtime.
Ryan Lindgren's first career NHL goal got the Rangers off to a fast start. The 21-year-old rookie defenseman pinched deep in the right-wing corner to win a loose puck and shovel-passed it to Ryan Strome, who relayed it out to Panarin. Panarin returned the pass to Strome, below the goal line, and he fired a cross-crease pass to Lindgren, who snuck down to the bottom of the right circle and snapped a shot over the shoulder of goaltender Sam Montembeault at 5:06 of the first period.
The Panthers stunned the Rangers, though, with two goals 30 seconds apart near the end of the period. Aleksander Barkov fired a shot from the right circle past Rangers forward Jesper Fast and by Lundqvist on the far side to tie it at 18:13, and then Dominic Toninato stuffed in a loose puck that trickled past Lundqvist to make it 2-1 Panthers at 18:43.
Filip Chytil scored at 1:28 of the second period to tie it, but Strome was sent off for a phantom hooking call � Strome argued he didn't do anything and the replay seemed to back him � and Florida regained the lead on Evgenii Dadonov's eighth goal at 4:42.
But then, Brady Skjei, back in the lineup after being scratched for Thursday's win in Carolina, tied it when he drove down the right side and fired a bad-angle backhand shot that deflected in off a Florida player and in at 5:31. The Rangers got their first power play of the game 22 seconds later, when Toninato was given a roughing penalty in addition to his fight against the Rangers' Greg McKegg, and Kakko scored his fourth goal at 7:31 to put the Rangers up, 4-3.
The lead lasted 59 seconds, until Vatrano was sprung on a clean breakaway and roofed a backhander over Lundqvist's catching glove to tie it 4-4.
But Florida's Brett Connolly was sent off for hooking with 3:07 left in the period, and the Rangers capitalized, on Kreider's fourth goal, a deft tip-in of Adam Fox's point shot at 18:35.
