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Florida leads series 3-2
The cats are one win away. Sam Bennett had a goal and an assist, Anton Lundell scored, and the Florida Panthers defeated the New York Rangers with a 3-2 victory Thursday night in Manhattan.
By winning the game 3-2, the Panthers take a 3-2 series lead in the Eastern Conference final, one win away from knocking out the Presidents Trophy winners and advancing to the Stanley Cup final. It was a 3 goal surge from the second to the 3rd period that was the difference for the Panthers.
After a scoreless first period, Chris Kreider got the Rangers on the board in the second period. He gave them a 1-0 lead when he scored shorthanded 2:04 into the period, assisted by Mika Zibanejad. At the 8:21 mark of the second, Bennett and Aaron Ekblad got assists on Gustav Forsling's 4th goal of the playoffs to tie the game 1-1.
Lundell scored 10:22 into the 3rd period for the Panthers, giving them a 2-1 lead on his 3rd goal of the playoffs. With 1:52 left in regulation, Bennett scored an empty net goal to double the Panthers lead to 3-1. With 50 seconds back, the Rangers got back to one goal down as Alexis Lafreniere scored. The Panthers didn't give up another one and got the win.
Asked about the win, Lundell said "That was huge. We had some good chances in the third and we were playing pretty good. I felt like we just had chance after chance and we just kept grinding and trusted that we're going to get the chance and the goal, and we got it. We really just tried to stay on top of them and keep the lead."
The goalie matchup was again between Russian counterparts Sergei Bobrovsky and Igor Shesterkin. Bobrovsky made 25 saves on 27 shots as he got the win for the Panthers, while Shesterkin made 34 saves on 36 shots as he got the loss.
New York defenseman Adam Fox said of the loss that "Close isn't cutting it. We got to capitalize on those chances in big spots. We have some looks but you don't win games based on getting looks, you got to capitalize."
Game 6 of the series is set for Saturday night back in Florida. The Panthers look to win to seal the series and become eastern conference champions. The Rangers need to win to keep their season alive and force a deciding game 7 back in New York.
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