Series between the New York Rangers and ” The Florida Panthers' performance in the Eastern Conference finals lives up to almost every expectation. Only two points do not correspond to them: the current result of the confrontation, in which most observers and experts gave preference to Florida, and the performance of Artemy Panarin, who found himself in the shadows. Otherwise, the battle for reaching the Stanley Cup final is turning out to be very juicy and somewhat crazy.
The second epithet is especially suitable for the third match of the series, which took place in Sunrise. While some spectators, along with Jaromir Jagr, openly yawned and were bored by what was happening in Prague, where the world championship gold medals were played out, others enjoyed the vibrant hockey performed by Florida and the Rangers. In the first period alone, the teams scored four goals between them, while in a parallel match the Czechs and the Swiss suffered with great difficulty to score David Pastrnak's puck.
The “Panthers” and the “Blue Shirts” did not put the matter on hold. Already in the third minute, Sam Rinehart beat Igor Shesterkin with an elegant feint and opened the scoring, leaving the Rangers goalkeeper perplexed by what had happened.
But a few moments later, a gang from New York in the person of Alexis Lafreniere and Barclay Goodrow fired a doublet with an interval of 25 seconds. Lafreniere's goal was especially impressive: the Canadian performed a cool shot from the backhand with no chance for Sergei Bobrovsky.
However, at the end of the period, Rinehart again beat Shesterkin and restored the status quo. What’s interesting is that the Florida forward scored both goals during the power play. In this component, he became the best in the entire regular season in the NHL, but in the current playoffs he scored only the second and third goals.
Subsequently, Lafreniere and Goodrow brought the Rangers out again at the end of the second 20 minutes your team forward and increased its advantage. Lafreniere scored another beautiful goal, leaving the entire Panthers defense, including Dmitry Kulikov, in the cold.
With the score 4:2 in favor of the Rangers after two periods, there was a great temptation to think that the outcome of the meeting was a foregone conclusion, but Florida turned out to be against it. In just one third period, the Panthers turned the tide of the match and turned Igor Shesterkin's life into a real hell. Shots followed towards the goal of the Russian goalkeeper of the Blue Shirts, but Shesterkin did everything to deprive his opponent of a chance to succeed. Only two shots from Alexander Barkov and Gustav Forsling reached the goal, which allowed Florida to send the game into overtime. If it weren’t for Igor’s efforts, the Rangers would have gone to the locker room at the end of the third 20 minutes to grieve over a painful defeat.
- “None of this would have happened without Shesterkin. The difference was making saves at the right time and in large numbers. His play at the end of the third period, when the Rangers ran out of gas, was amazing,” the X presenter said on social network ESPN's Linda Cohn
- “Igor Shesterkin deserved to have a statue erected to him today. He was magnificent,” added NBC New York anchor Bruce Beck.
In overtime, a lot is decided by chance, moment and moment, which can go against the general logic. This is what happened today. “Florida” was supposed to put the pressure on the “Rangers” and snatch victory, but one episode in overtime canceled out all the efforts of the “Panthers”. Alexander Wennberg had not scored a single goal in this playoff game until today, but at a crucial moment he broke his goalless streak and brought the Blueshirts an important victory. She was already Shesterkin’s tenth in the Stanley Cup. Igor reached this mark for the second time in his overseas career. In Rangers history, only one goaltender has had more than one 10-win season in a single Stanley Cup—the legendary Henrik Lundqvist accomplished that feat three times. It’s not for nothing that Shesterkin is called the heir of King Henrik.
5:4 (OT) — The Rangers beat Florida again in overtime and take the lead in the Eastern Conference finals , taking the next step towards the championship.
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