RECAP: Rangers 4, Panthers 3 (SO)

NEW YORK – Even though they were missing several key players, the Florida Panthers looked like their old selves during a 4-3 shootout loss to the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Saturday.

With captain Aleksander Barkov (undisclosed) and Aaron Ekblad (lower body) already sidelined due to injuries, the Panthers were also missing Gustav Forsling (illness), Jonah Gadjovich (undisclosed) and Ryan Lomberg (undisclosed) in a hard-fought matchup against the top team in the Metropolitan Division.

Among the players to step up was defenseman Tobias Bjornfot, who made his debut with the Panthers.

“You learn a whole bunch of stuff – different line combinations, different D pairings,” Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said. “Got to see Tobias [Bjornfot] for the first time. He hasn’t played hockey in a long time. The second shift he’s down past the goal line on the other end and I thought, ‘Good for you, young man. Go show us what you can do and play the game to win.’ It was really good.”

In a rocking MSG, Matthew Tkachuk brought a silence to the crowd at 8:18 of the first period when he tipped in a shot from Josh Mahura, who filled in for Forsling on the top pairing, to put Florida up 1-0.

The goal marked the first time the Panthers struck first in the last five games.

Per NHL stats, Tkachuk’s 63 goals since joining the Panthers are now tied with Mike Hoffman for the second-most goals prior to a player’s 150th game with the franchise, trailing only Pavel Bure’s 114 goals in 149 games.

Looking to counter, the Rangers put the pressure on shortly after Tkachuk’s opening goal with a 3-on-1 opportunity that was stopped by Sergei Bobrovsky. Later in the period, Florida’s penalty kill came up in the clutch while allowing just one shot on goal against New York’s lethal power play.

“Bobby played amazing,” Tkachuk said. “Some of those saves were incredible. All the way out, when we got to our game, we played pretty well tonight.”

The Eastern Conference heavyweights also weren’t afraid to throw the bodies around early on.

After the opening 20 minutes, there were more combined hits (21) than shots on goal (20).

With fans still returning to their seats from the concourse for the second period, Eetu Luostarinen went backdoor on Igor Shesterkin just 21 seconds into the period on a dish from Sam Reinhart to double Florida’s lead to 2-0 with his 12th goal of the season.

The goal marked the second time in his career he’s scored in the opening 30 seconds of any period.

After being shut down by the Panthers in the first period, the Rangers got some revenge on the power play in the second when Adam Fox cashed in with the extra attacker to cut the deficit to 2-1 at 6:22.

Taking that newfound momentum and turning it into another quick goal, the Rangers evened the score a little over two minutes later when Artemi Panarin buried a blistering one-timer to make it 2-2 at 8:32.

“A way better game than we’ve played in the last while,” said Tkachuk. “It really sucks that we had a lead and blew it late. That’s uncharacteristic of us. Gotta learn from that, but we were pretty depleted tonight and guys really battled.”

Stopping the bleeding, the Panthers came up with a huge penalty kill midway through the second to take the wind out of New York’s sails and keep the score even heading into the final 20 minutes.

After being outshot 8-1 nearly 16 minutes into the third period, Carter Verhaeghe was able to keep the puck in the offensive zone and bury his 31st goal of the season to put the Panthers ahead 3-2 at 15:52.

Watching in real-time, it’s that sort of moment that reminds the world how dangerous the Cats can be.

“The last couple of weeks we’ve been kind of low on energy and not on top of our game, so we definitely wanted have a good game tonight and we came out strong,” said Verhaeghe.

Down but not out, the Rangers answered less than a minute later when a shot from Panarin ping-ponged off a pair of Panthers in front of the net and somehow got past Bobrovsky to make it 3-3 at 16:35.

After a back-and-forth overtime that featured a few close calls for both teams – as well as more than a few highlight-reel saves from Bobrovsky – the Rangers scored twice in the shootout for the 4-3 win.

Still, after being unhappy after a few recent losses, the Panthers felt good leaving the arena tonight.

“I liked our game tonight,” said Maurice. “I’m really happy with it -- how hard they played and the effort, the stuff you guys can’t hear or appreciate, just the wired-ness of the bench and pulling for each other. It’s been a little bit of a grinder for us. The element we haven’t really been able to grab hold of us in our games was in it tonight. I was very happy with it.”

THEY SAID IT

“Incredible. He (Sergei Bobrovsky) keeps us in it every single night. We’re very lucky to have him.” – Matthew Tkachuk

“You hate losing, but I don’t hate losing nearly as much as looking like we’re not prepared to play. That will keep you up and has. But I’ll sleep good tonight.” – Paul Maurice

CATS STATS

- Sam Bennett led the Panthers with four hits.

- Evan Rodrigues recorded four shots on goal.

- Tobias Bjornfot played 17:01 and registered 2 hits in his first game as a Panther.

- Eight different Panthers registered two or more hits.

- Matthew Tkachuk and Cater Verhaeghe each had a goal and an assist.

WHAT’S NEXT

The Panthers are going to get right back at it tomorrow.

After picking up a point in the Big Apple, they’ll look to pocket two more when they close out their back-to-back with a battle against the Philadelphia Flyers (36-26-9) at Wells Fargo Center on Sunday at 6 p.m. ET.