Caught them with the Rangers on the verge of elimination from the playoffs! Florida grabbed an important third point in the series. Special game, Panthers coach says

The Florida Panthers are one win away from repeating last year’s appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals. In Thursday’s fifth game of the Eastern Conference Finals, the Panthers defeated the New York Rangers 3-2 to take a 3-2 series lead. Sam Bennett contributed a goal and an assist and Sergei Bobrovsky had 25 saves.

Fans at Madison Square Garden did not see a goal during the first period, Rangers fans did not see the first goal of the game until the start of the second period. However, everything was going the other way when K’Andre Miller received a two-minute penalty after just 40 seconds.

The Panthers not only didn’t take advantage of their power play, but even cashed in on it. Chris Kreider opened the scoring after an assist from Zibanejad.

The referees then handed out two minor penalties on both sides later in the middle period. However, neither team took advantage of their numerical superiority. Florida, on the other hand, struck on a 5-on-5 play when Gustav Forsling scored at 28:21 to tie the game at 1-1.

The evenly-matched game offered only two goals after 50 minutes of play, but the Panthers took the lead at the start of the final ten minutes. It was 22-year-old Finnish forward Anton Lundell who sent his team into an important lead.

The home team then had no choice but to call off their goalie. Florida took advantage of this, with Sam Bennett scoring into the Rangers’ uncovered cage less than two minutes before the final buzzer. with 50 seconds left, Alexis Lafreniere corrected the score (2:3).

Chytil and the Rangers are on the verge of elimination

The winner of the Presidents’ Trophy for the best team of the regular season was not prevented from defeat by a goal and an assist from Chris Kreider and two assists from Mika Zibanejad.

Czech forward Filip Chytil played with them on the elite first line. Goaltender Igor Shostorkin caught 34 shots. Florida is leading the conference finals 3-2 in the series.

“We know how we want to play. This time it took us two periods to get there,” said Panthers head coach Paul Maurice. “It was a special game in many ways. The first period didn’t go the way we wanted, but we got better as the game went on. We simplified the game in the third period, which was key,” he added.

Source: NHL, X