Written by Bryan Winters at Blueshirtbanter.com
After Saturday’s miserable performance against the San Jose Sharks, the New York Rangers followed it up with a strong outing tonight against the Florida Panthers. Given how the California road trip concluded, the Rangers needed a quick start on home ice against the Atlantic leading Panthers. Sure enough, the Rangers controlled the play through 20 minutes and only allowed three total shots against.
They did an excellent job of clogging up passing and shooting lanes, and gave Henrik Lundqvist a relatively simple workload during the first period. The Rangers strong possession play in the early going eventually led to the game’s first goal a little past the halfway mark. Viktor Stalberg and Dominic Moore wound up connecting on a beautiful give-and-go play, and Stalberg finished it off on a partial breakaway.
With the Rangers carrying the 1-0 lead over to the second period, they looked to build on their strong play and carry it over to the middle frame. About three minutes into the second, Mats Zuccarello was hauled down by Vincent Trocheck and that sent the Rangers to their first power play of the evening. With a little under a minute remaining on the man-advantage, Zuccarello got his revenge and rifled a beautiful wrist shot overAl Montoya’s shoulder while falling down.
The puck wound up deflecting if off of the crossbar, and the Rangers took a commanding 2-0 lead in the game. Heading into the the third period, the Rangers looked to avoid a letdown once again and close out the game with a strong final 20 minutes. However, the Panthers spoiled that notion just 6:51 into the third period, as Vincent Trocheck picked up a nifty deflection in front off of a feed from Jussi Jokinen.
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