Rangers sparked by resurgent penalty kill in Game 3 OT win in East Final

SUNRISE, Fla. -- The same penalty-kill unit that let the New York Rangers down twice in the first period was a big reason they defeated the Florida Panthers 5-4 in overtime in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Final at Amerant Bank Arena on Sunday.

"For giving up a couple early, I really thought we caught ourselves and did a great job," coach Peter Laviolette said.

Sam Reinhart burned the Rangers for two power-play goals in the first period, scoring both off New York turnovers, each on defenseman K'Andre Miller's failed attempts to clear the puck.

Reinhart scored coming out of the right corner on the first one to give the Panthers a 1-0 lead at 2:50. He scored the second with a backhanded shot off Jacob Trouba's skate from below the right face-off circle to tie it 2-2 at 14:46.

"The second one was tough, they were playing a 2-on-1 down low and it ends up redirecting and going in," Laviolette said. "That was kind of a tough bounce. But after that I thought we did an excellent job of shutting them down."

A key, Vincent Trocheck said, was putting it out of their minds that they had given up two on the PK already.

"I think we looked at the bigger picture," Trocheck said. "We know how good our PK has been and every time we let one up, we just have to go back to the fundamentals, back to the basics and rely on what we know we're capable of."

So they did, and since they're capable of generating offense on the PK, that's exactly what they did.

Trocheck set up Barclay Goodrow for his second short-handed goal of the Stanley Cup Playoffs and third goal of the series to give the Rangers a 4-2 lead at 18:14 of the second period with Trouba in the box serving two penalties, minors for slashing and elbowing.

Trouba, by the way, is second among New York defensemen in short-handed time on ice in the playoffs behind Ryan Lindgren.

It was the Rangers’ fifth short-handed goal of the playoffs.

"Certainly, the goal was huge just to take a little bit back from that," Laviolette said. "If you give up a couple early to be able to come back and contribute like that. It was a heck of a play and a heck of a shot. That was a real positive."

Trouba went to the box again for holding at 14:23 of the third period, but the Rangers again did the job on the PK even though Trocheck, Goodrow, Lindgren and Adam Fox were caught on the ice and in the defensive zone for most of it, finally getting to change with 20 seconds left on it.

Igor Shesterkin played a monster role this time. He made three saves on Panthers forward Carter Verhaeghe during the penalty kill.

"That was hectic for sure," Lindgren said. "Obviously, it hurts that it's 'Troubs' going to the box, he's such a good penalty killer. But that one they got some chances, 'Shesty' came up huge, again. They had a lot of zone time. We were pretty gassed there at the end. We've got to do a better job of getting pucks out if we have the chance, but we hung in there, hung in tight, tried to keep them to the outside and just kind of get through it. We did."