Rangers Shock Panthers in Game Three with Alex Wennberg’s OT Winner

The Rangers and Panthers each sought to take the lead in the series in Game Three on Sunday afternoon as the Eastern Conference Finals shifted from New York to Sunrise, Florida. Both sides felt optimistic going into today's game because they had split the series' first two games. Barclay Goodrow's overtime winner helped the Rangers win Game Two, and they hoped to build off their recent momentum. The Panthers, meantime, have had excellent fortune playing on their home ice at Amerant Bank Arena. They have a 4-2 record at home and have scored 20 goals in the Stanley Cup Playoffs and were hoping to feed off of the home crowd to bounce back from their loss in Game Two. Despite being outshot 38-23, the Rangers would win Game Three 5-4 in overtime against the Panthers, all thanks to Alex Wennberg's game-winning goal.  

Less than two minutes into the first period, Braden Schneider of the Rangers was given a delay of game penalty for shooting the puck over the glass, which gave the Panthers their first power play of the contest. In the Rangers' zone, Aleksander Barkov sent the puck along the board behind the net to Sam Reinhart, who skated out in front and backhanded the puck past Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin to give the Panthers their first lead of the game at 1-0 only 1:05 into the power play at 2:50. The Rangers would tie the game at 1-1 at 7:17 when Alexis Lafrenière backhanded the puck past Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky after Vincent Trocheck had sent the puck from the center of the ice to Lafrenière for an odd-man rush. Shortly after, at 7:42, Schneider's shot from the blue line went off Goodrow's stick and bounced past Bobrovsky's pads and into the net, giving the Rangers a 2-1 lead a mere 25 seconds later. The Rangers' Matt Rempe was given a roughing penalty with five minutes left in the first period, which gave the Panthers their third power play of the game. After Carter Verhaeghe fed the puck to Reinhart close to the right post, the Panthers scored their second power play goal of the game at 14:46, 39 seconds into the power play. Reinhart backhanded the puck through Shesterkin's five-hole and into the net for his second goal of the contest. 

Early on in the second period, the Rangers would go on the power play for the first time in the game after Panthers’ Kevin Stenlund was called for an interference penalty. However, the Rangers would only generate one shot on goal and the game would remain knotted at two. After receiving a pass from K'Andre Miller while leaving the Rangers' zone, Lafrenière skated all the way down to the other end, around a Panthers defender, and into the middle of the Panthers' zone. There, he backhanded the puck past Bobrovsky's skate, bouncing it off the post and into the net for his second goal of the game to give the Rangers the lead again at 3-2 at 15:23. The Rangers' Jacob Trouba would be penalized for two minor penalties with two minutes remaining in the second period, prompting the Panthers to go on a four-minute power play. At 18:14, as the Rangers were on the penalty kill, Trocheck went behind the Panthers' net and saw Goodrow entering the Panthers' zone. Goodrow then slap-shotted the puck past Bobrovsky, ringing it off the top of the post and into the net to increase the Rangers' lead to 4-2. 

At 5:04 in the third period, Barkov's tip-in of a Verhaeghe shot inside the Rangers' crease would squeak past Shesterkin into the net cutting the Rangers' lead to 4-3. The Rangers were considering challenging the goal due to goalie interference, but Peter Laviolette, the head coach, chose to be cautious and not dispute. Just 1:54 later at 6:58, after winning a face-off, Gustav Forsling took a feed from Matthew Tkachuk and shot the puck over Shesterkin's shoulder and into the net, tying the game at 4–4. For the second straight game, the two teams would go into overtime despite the Panthers' offense putting the Rangers on their heels in the final minutes of regulation, with repeated tries to score the game-winner. The Rangers would find the game-winning goal only five minutes into overtime, at 5:35, when Ryan Lindgren's shot from close to the boards at the blue line bounced off of Alex Wennberg's stick and into the net, giving the Rangers an exciting 5-4 overtime victory in Game Three.