Anton Lundell broke the tie with a deflected shot with 9:38 left and the Florida Panthers moved within one victory of returning to the Stanley Cup Final, beating the New York Rangers 3-2 in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final. the Eastern Conference on Thursday night.
Gustav Forsling and Sam Bennett also scored, and Sergei Bobrovsky made 25 saves to help the Panthers, who lost to Las Vegas last year in the championship series, win their second straight game in the best-of series after lose Games 2 and 3 in overtime. .
Chris Kreider and Alexis Lafreniere scored for the Rangers, and Igor Shesterkin made 34 saves in another magnificent effort. The Presidents’ Trophy winners need to win two games in a row to return to the finals for the first time since 2014. Mike Zibanejad had two assists.
The Panthers can finish the series Saturday in Florida. If a Game 7 is necessary, it will be at Madison Square Garden, where the Panthers have won this series twice.
The go-ahead goal came after the Rangers lost the puck in Florida’s half. Eetu Luostarien got the puck and found Lundell at the Rangers blue line. His shot from the right circle beat Shesterkin, although he could have hit New York defenseman Braden Schneider’s stick.
Bennett added an empty-net goal with 1:52 left and it proved necessary when Lafreniere scored with 50 seconds left. The Rangers never got another chance.
Kreider and Zibanejad, who were scoreless in the first four games of the series, combined to give New York the lead with a short-handed goal at 2:04 of the second period.
Kreider interrupted a Florida play at the blue line, pushed the puck toward Zibanejad, then took a return pass into the offensive zone and beat Bobrovsky with a deft backhand move, evoking a roar that seemed to shake Madison Square Garden. .
It was Kreider’s eighth playoff goal and the Rangers’ sixth shorthanded goal, tying the team’s postseason record set in 1978-79. New York reached the Stanley Cup final, losing to Montreal in five games.
Forsling tied it a little more than six minutes later, receiving a perfect pass from Bennett and beating Shesterkin with a backhand that the goalkeeper deflected but not enough to keep it out of the net. It was the defenseman’s fourth goal and 11th point of the playoffs.
Both teams had big chances in the scoreless first period, with Bobrovsky stopping Filip Chytil and Vincent Trocheck nearby, and Shesterkin deflecting off Kevin Stenlund and getting some help from a post on Bennett’s backhand at point-blank range.