Yahoo Sports Eastern Conference final Game 6: Florida Panthers 2, New York Rangers 1
The Florida Panthers are going back to the Stanley Cup Finals.
Goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky came up big once again and Sam Bennett scored late in the first period give the Panthers a lead they wouldn’t relinquish in a series-clinching 2-1 win over the New York Rangers in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference final on Saturday at Amerant Bank Arena.
And like that, the Panthers find themselves contending for a Stanley Cup for the second consecutive season after falling in five games to the Vegas Golden Knights last season. They are the first team since the 2009 Pittsburgh Penguins to return to the Stanley Cup Finals one year after losing in the finals.
Tarasenko scores big insurance goal
The Panthers doubled their lead 9:08 into the third period when he tapped in a pass from Anton Lundell past Igor Shesterkin.
It was Tarasenko’s third goal of the playoffs and first since Game 3 against the Boston Bruins in the second round.
Florida one period away from clinching series
Neither team scored in the second period, and the Panthers will take their 1-0 lead into the third period — putting them 20 minutes away from clinching the series against the Rangers and advancing to the Stanley Cup Finals for a second consecutive year.
Florida had an 11-9 edge in shots on goal in a relatively brisk middle frame.
The Rangers do have 54 shot attempts in the game, but only 18 have gotten to the net. The Panthers have blocked 14 shots — with Aaron Ekblad leading the way individually with three — and another 22 New York attempts have missed the net completely.
Florida has dominated the third period this season, outscoring opponents 23-10 in the final frame of regulation. One more solid third period will have them back in the Stanley Cup Finals.
First intermission thoughts
The Panthers dominated the final stretch of the first period and got rewarded for it with the Sam Bennett goal.
Overall, Florida goes into the first intermission with a 13-8 edge in shots on goal, 14-10 in scoring chances and 8-4 in high-danger chances.
The Panthers have also blocked nine shots already.
Sam Bennett opens scoring late in the first
The Panthers took a 1-0 lead with 49.3 seconds left when Sam Bennett beat Igor Shesterkin with a slap shot from the left circle on a pass from Evan Rodrigues.
It’s Bennett’s sixth goal of the playoffs and third in the past three games.
A lot of chances early but no goals
Both the Panthers and Rangers have had some stellar chances in the first 11-and-a-half minutes but neither has found the back of the net.
Overall, Florida has an 8-7 lead in shots on goal, 8-6 edge in scoring chances and 6-4 advantage in high-danger chances.
The Rangers, however, have fired off more shot attempts — 18-11 — with the Panthers blocking five shots.
Series recap and schedule
▪ Game 1: Sergei Bobrovsky had a 23-save shutout, while Matthew Tkachuk, Carter Verhaeghe and Sam Bennett scored goals in Florida’s 3-0 win.
▪ Game 2: Barclay Goodrow scored the game-winner with 5:59 left in overtime to lift the New York Rangers to a 2-1 win over the Florida Panthers in Game 2 of the series at Madison Square Garden. New York’s Vincent Trocheck and Florida’s Carter Verhaeghe each scored in the first period. That was all that would get past either Sergei Bobrovsky or Igor Shesterkin in regulation.
▪ Game 3: Alex Wennberg scored the game-winning goal 5:35 into overtime to seal the Rangers’ 5-4 win in Game 3 on Sunday at Amerant Bank Arena to take a 2-1 lead in the series.
That came after Florida scored twice in the third period to tie the game.
Alexis Lafreniere and Barclay Goodrow each scored twice in regulation for the Rangers. Sam Reinhart had a pair of first-period power-play goals for Florida, which also got goals in the third from Aleksander Barkov and Gustav Forsling.
▪ Game 4: Sam Reinhart scored the game-winner 1:12 into overtime on the power play as the Panthers evened the series. Sam Bennett and Carter Verhaeghe also scored for Florida.
▪ Game 5: The Panthers scored twice in the third period to take a lead they wouldn’t relinquish in a 3-2 win over the Rangers to get within one win of a Stanley Cup Finals return. Anton Lundell scored the go-ahead goal and Sam Bennett added an empty-netter in the closing minutes of the third period. Gustav Forsling also scored for Florida
▪ Game 6: Tonight
▪ Game 7 (if necessary): Monday, June 3, New York’s Madison Square Garden, 8 p.m., ESPN, ESPN+
Pregame reading
Need to catch up ahead of Game 6? Here are the highlights of the Miami Herald’s coverage over the past two days.
▪ Anton Lundell came up clutch yet again, this time with the go-ahead goal in Game 5.
▪ Five key stats from the Panthers’ Game 5 win over the Rangers.
▪ Florida may be one win away from the Stanley Cup Finals, but the Panthers’ focus right now is on finishing the task at hand in the Eastern Conference final first.
▪ Vladimir Tarasenko, the Panthers’ “hockey professor,” has been valuable for Florida in ways that don’t always show up on the stat sheet.
