*Photo from the New York Post*
Florida leads series 1-0
Talk about taking control early. Sergei Bobrovsky shined in goal, Matthew Tkachuk had a goal and an assist, and the Florida Panthers defeated the New York Rangers with a 3-0 shutout victory Wednesday night in Manhattan.
The Panthers made a statement early in the series, handing the Presidents Trophy winning Rangers a shutout loss on home ice to open the conference finals, a matchup of eastern conference division champions. It's the second straight win for the Panthers and the Rangers 3rd in 4 games.
Florida got the only "standard" goal of this game in the first. It came from Tkachuk, who scored at the 16:26 mark of the opening period, giving the Panthers a 1-0 lead with Carter Verhaeghe and Gustav Forsling assisting on his 5th goal of the playoffs. After that, things got weird in the final period. Pretty weird.
After a scoreless second period, the Panthers doubled their lead in the 3rd. Verhaeghe intercepted a clearing attempt and sent a centering pass that deflected off Alexis Lafreniere's stick and into the Rangers net for an "own goal" that made it 2-0 Panthers. Verhaeghe got credit for the goal. Sam Bennett then iced the win with an empty net goal.
Verhaeghe said of the Rangers own goal that "I was trying to get the puck out and I saw the goalie come out and he shot to the boards. I just picked up the puck and tried to make play to the net. I think Chucky was moving back door. I tried to put it on his tape, but I put it on someone else's tape, and it went in luckily."
It was Bobrovsky between the pipes for the Panthers to open the round, and he came up big. He made 11 saves in the 3rd period to contribute to a 23 save shutout, his first of the playoffs after 6 in the regular season. It was the second playoff shutout of his career.
Bobrovsky said of the shutout that "In the postseason, you don't think about the goals or anything, there is only wins and losses and you focus on one moment at a time and you don't think about anything else. It was a great building, great fans, great atmosphere. It's a big win for us."
Getting the start for the Rangers between the pipes was a Russian counterpart of Bobrovsky, that being Igor Shesterkin. Taking the loss, Shesterkin made 24 saves out of the 26 he faced from the Panthers, giving him a .923 save percentage.
New York forward Chris Kreider said of the loss that "We had looks, we had a few breakaways, but our whole entire game has got to be a lot better. We didn't do enough to give ourselves chances to be in the O-zone and to even get to the net."
The series remains in New York City for game two, set for Friday night. The Panthers will look to take both games on the road before heading home, while the Rangers try to even the series and force at least a 5th game.
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