Panthers rally past Rangers in OT to knot series at two

*Photo from the Miami Herald*

Series tied 2-2

   Just like that, we're tied again. Aleksander Barkov had two assists, Sam Reinhart scored the game winning goal, and the Florida Panthers defeated the New York Rangers with a 3-2 victory Tuesday night in Sunrise.

   With the Rangers previously at 4-0 in overtime in the playoffs, the Panthers handed them their first overtime loss of the postseason as they tied the series. Barkov was the lone multi point player for the Panthers, who forced a game 6 with the win.

   Panthers forward Sam Bennett said of the win that "We wanted it so bad. I think we were gripping our sticks a little tight in the first. Then we started to loosen up and just relax, started making more plays, got back to our game that we've had success with all year. It was good composure by our part, and we just calmed down in the second and third there."

   Vincent Trocheck scored the only goal of the first period, giving the Rangers a 1-0 lead on the power play. It stayed that way until 8:45 into the second period, when Bennett scored for the Panthers to tie the game 1-1. At the 12:16 mark of the period, Carter Verhaeghe scored a power play goal with Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk assisting.

   The Rangers weren't done, fighting back in the 3rd period. Alexis Lafreniere scored 3:28 into the 3rd for the Rangers, tying the game 2-2 on his 7th goal of the playoffs, assisted by Artemi Panarin and Adam Fox. On the power play just 1:12 into overtime, Reinhart scored for the Panthers to finish off the 3-2 win.

   Barkov said of Reinhart's goal "Well, if he’s open, obviously we want to look for him, and he’s in the slot and just get the puck to him. Obviously, he’s scored a lot of goals from there and works really hard in the practices shooting from there, so you want to get the puck to him, and that’s what happened."

   The goalie matchup for game 4 was the same as it has been, with Sergei Bobrovsky starting for the Panthers against Igor Shesterkin of the Rangers. Bobrovsky made 21 saves on 23 shots to get the win, while Shesterkin made 37 saves on 40 shots in the loss.

   Rangers forward Mika Zibanejad said of the loss that "I think we sat back a little bit in the second and allowed them to kind of dictate the period. We played a pretty good first period, set ourselves up. The second period was not what we wanted. Good job in the third tying the game up and giving ourselves a chance. Overall, not the result we wanted. It’s best-of-3. We go home and try to take care of Game 5."

   Game 5 of the series is set for Thursday night as the series heads back to New York City for one game. With the series tied back up, both teams will look to take a 3-2 lead in the series in the pivotal game 5.