FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida. — The Florida Panthers will try to tie the Eastern Conference final in Game 4 against the New York Rangers at Amerant Bank Arena on Tuesday.
The Rangers hold a 2-1 lead in the best-of-7 series after back-to-back overtime victories, including a 5-4 victory in Game 3 here on Sunday. Florida will have to respond after losing three of its last four home games in the Stanley Cup Playoffs or return to New York for Game 5 on Thursday, one loss away from elimination.
“It’s a big match. It’s crucial,” Panthers center Sam Bennett said. “We know how important this match is. We’ll prepare for it, but I think in the playoffs, every game seems like a must-win game. So we’re going to treat it the same way we’ve treated every other game, but it’s definitely an important issue for us.
The Rangers won Game 3 despite being outshot 37-23 and the Panthers having a 108-43 advantage in shot attempts. Florida outshot New York 13-4 in the third period and erased a 4-2 deficit before New York rebounded to win on center Alex Wennberg’s deflection goal at 5:35 of the period. extension.
The Rangers believe they can play better and will likely need it in anticipation of how the Panthers respond in an attempt to even the series.
“Looking at our game, yes, there are levels of our game that we want to reach,” New York center Mika Zibanejad said. “We played some pretty good hockey, but maybe not at our best. But at the same time, we are playing against a pretty good team. We’re up 4-2 and obviously they’re coming with their push, and they’re gaining a bit of momentum. But I think it just shows the character that we have in our group and obviously with (goalie Igor Shesterkin) giving us a chance to be able to win in overtime.
The Rangers are 15-1 in their history when taking a 3-1 lead in a seven-game playoff series, with the only loss coming in the 2009 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals against the Washington Capitals. The Panthers are 1-3 in their history facing a 3-1 series deficit, with a victory against the Boston Bruins in the first round last season.
Here are 3 keys for game 4:
1. Possession of the puck
Florida used its forecheck to dominate puck possession in Game 3, particularly in the third period, when it had a 41-11 advantage in shot attempts, and it looks to do the same on Tuesday . New York was able to overcome long stretches in their ending by being opportunistic in their counterattack, but being more than doubled in shot attempts is generally not a model of success.
“If you look at Game 1 and Game 2 and the details of the numbers, we’re doing a lot of things we want to do,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said. “For me, it’s about attacking the ice, attacking them. Sometimes when you’re on your heels and you’re not attacking, you’re playing defense and you’re not playing with the puck coming out of the defensive zone or going through the neutral zone. You give them food.
“I thought there were a lot of opportunities in the first and second game where we did that. For me, it’s just about getting back to that mindset of attacking the ice, attacking them and making the next play.”
2. Execution in the offensive zone
Although the Panthers heavily outshot the Rangers and had an even greater margin in shot attempts, they felt they could have done a better job taking advantage of their sustained pressure in the offensive zone, starting with getting more pucks to the net. Florida saw 42 of its 108 shot attempts blocked and 29 more miss the net.
New York had a 10-8 advantage in high-danger shots on goal, according to NHL EDGE Puck and Player Tracking. So, getting to those high-danger areas in front of Shesterkin to set screens and get deflections and rebounds will be a priority for the Panthers.
“Obviously you know what kind of goalie he is, but with good goalies you have to create traffic, make their lives more difficult and just get pucks to the net,” Panthers forward Vladimir Tarasenko said. “Sometimes a clean shot doesn’t go in. That’s why you have to have people in front of him to create that first and second layer to make things more difficult.”
3. Power on
The Rangers have won the last two games without winning the special teams battle, but know they will likely need to improve their power play to have more success in this series. After going 10-for-25 (40%) in its first six playoff games, New York is 1-for-18 in its last seven games, including 0-for-8 in the three games against Florida.
The Panthers are 3 for 11 (27.3%) on the power play in the series, and although they gave up a crucial shorthanded goal to center Barclay Goodrow in the second period of Game 3, they been the best. team on special teams in the series. Florida’s penalty kill is 26 of 27 (96.3%) over its last 10 games and has frustrated New York with its pressing approach.
“If we knew the answer, we’d be working on it already,” Rangers forward Vincent Trocheck said. “We just have to look at everything and see if we can find any holes.”
Rangers Projected Roster
Chris Kreider – Mika Zibanejad – Filip Chytil
Artemi Panarin — Vincent Trocheck — Alexis Lafreniere
Jack Roslovic – Alex Wennberg – Kaapo Kakko
Will Cuylle – Barclay Goodrow – Matt Rempe
Ryan Lindgren – Adam Fox
K’André Miller – Jacob Trouba
Erik Gustafsson – Braden Schneider
Igor Shesterkin
Jonathan Rapide
Striped: Zac Jones, Chad Ruhwedel, Jonny Brodzinski, Adam Edstrom, Blake Wheeler, Alex Belzile, Brett Berard, Anton Blidh, Ben Harpur, Dylan Garand, Jake Leschyshyn, Connor Mackey, Victor Mancini, Brennan Othmann, Tyler Pitlick, Matthew Robertson, Brandon Scanlin , Adam Sykora
Hurt: Jimmy Vesey (upper body)
Panthers Projected Roster
Carter Verhaeghe – Aleksander Barkov – Sam Reinhart
Matthew Tkachuk – Sam Bennett – Evan Rodrigues
Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Vladimir Tarasenko
Steven Lorentz – Kevin Stenlund – Kyle Okposo
Gustav Forsling – Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola – Brandon Montour
Oliver Ekman-Larsson – Dmitri Kulikov
Sergei Bobrovsky
Anthony Stolarz
Striped: Ryan Lomberg, Nick Cousins, Tobias Bjornfot, Uvis Balinskis, Josh Mahura, Jonah Gadjovich, Spencer Knight, Rasmus Asplund, Mike Benning, Magnus Hellberg, Matt Kiersted, William Lockwood, Mackie Samoskevich, Justin Sourdif
Hurt: None
Status report
The Rangers did not hold a morning skate and indicated no changes to their lineup from Game 3, but that won’t be revealed until warm-up. … Vesey, a forward, remains week to week after being injured on a Lomberg hit in Game 2 and missing Game 3. … Panthers coach Paul Maurice shuffled his top three lines in Game 3 and plans to keep that going to start Game 4; Bennett moved back to center on the second line and Lundell moved to the third. … Florida appeared to make a change at the fourth line during its morning practice, bringing in Lorentz and Okposo to replace Lomberg and Cousins; Lorentz and Okposo have not played since Game 5 of the second round against the Boston Bruins.
NHL.com freelance correspondent George Richards contributed to this report.