Panthers Rally For 4-3 Shootout Win Over Rangers
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NEW YORK (AP) — Aleksander Barkov scored a third-period goal and added the winner in the shootout as the Florida Panthers beat the New York Rangers 4-3 on Friday night.
Jaromir Jagr had two assists and passed Hall of Famer Gordie Howe for the most points after turning 40 with 269.
Jonathan Huberdeau had a goal and assist and Jussi Jokinen also scored for Florida. James Reimer made 29 saves for the Panthers, who are trying to stay in the Eastern Conference playoff race. Reimer made his seventh straight start with Roberto Luongo out because of a lower-body injury.
Mats Zuccarello scored two goals and J.T. Miller also tallied for the Rangers, who were unable to hold an early 2-0 lead. Brendan Smith added two assists.
Antti Raanta made his fourth consecutive start in place of the injured Henrik Lundqvist and finished with 34 saves.
The Rangers have lost six straight home games (0-5-1) since beating Washington 2-1 on Feb. 19.
Tied 2-2 after two periods, Barkov put the Panthers ahead at 7:23 of the third. Huberdeau entered the zone and sent a pass to Jagr, who passed to Barkov and scored his 19th of the season.
Zuccarello tied it a little more than four minutes later with his 14th of the season at 11:45.
Trailing 2-0 after the first period, the Panthers tied the game in the second.
Alex Petrovic launched a shot from the point and Huberdeau swept in the rebound past Raanta at 1:25 for his sixth goal of the season. A little more than five minutes later, the Panthers took advantage of their power play. Jokinen made a pass to Jason Demers. Demers sent a pass to Thomas Vanek and he sent a cross-ice pass Jokinen, who scored into a wide-open net to make it 2-2 at 6:41.
The Rangers had grabbed an early lead with two goals in a 97-second span in the first period.
Michael Grabner used his speed on scoring chance and drew a hooking penalty. With the Rangers on the power play, Chris Krieder skated up the left wing and centered a pass to Zuccarello, who one-timed it past Reimer for his 13th at 2:34.
Then Smith forced a turnover and passed to Miller, who wristed a shot past Reimer from the faceoff circle at 4:11 for his 20th.
Reimer allowed two goals on his first three shots. He rebounded later in the period to make a nice glove save on Derek Stepan to keep it a two-goal deficit.
NOTES: Panthers D Aaron Ekblad missed his third consecutive game because of a concussion. He is expected to miss another week. ... Miller has reached the 20-goal mark for the second consecutive season. Zuccarello has reached the 50-point mark for the second consecutive season and for the third time in the past four seasons. ... Kreider extended his point streak to five games and his assist streak to four games, tying career highs in both categories. ... Rangers F Jesper Fast returned after missing seven games because of an upper-body injury sustained in the third period of a 4-1 loss to Washington on Feb. 28.
UP NEXT
Panthers: Travel to Pittsburgh to face the Stanley Cup champs on Sunday afternoon.
Rangers: Travel to Minnesota to face the Wild on Saturday night.
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