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Stanley Cup Playoffs Day 35: Goodrow plays the hero as Rangers win Game 2

Mike Gould
Mike Gould
May 24, 2024, 23:41 EDT
Stanley Cup Playoffs Day 35: Goodrow plays the hero as Rangers win Game 2
Credit: Danny Wild-USA TODAY Sports

Barclay Goodrow scored the game-winning goal in overtime on Friday as the New York Rangers defeated the Florida Panthers by a 2-1 final to tie the Eastern Conference Final heading into Game 3 in Florida on Sunday.

The Rangers opened the scoring at the 4:12 mark of the first period. Although he didn’t get any credit for an assist on the play, Alexis Lafrenière got the party started with a big open-ice check on Carter Verhaeghe, allowing Adam Fox to pick up the puck and feed former Panther Vincent Trocheck for a tap-in on the doorstep.

Shortly after the puck went in the net, Verhaeghe took exception with the Lafrenière hit, retaliating with a solid shot at the former No. 1 overall pick right in front of the Florida net. A full-fledged scrum ensued from there, with Verhaeghe, Lafrenière, and Matthew Tkachuk all being assessed roughing penalties.

Midway through the first period, defenseman Dmitri Kulikov — playing in his second stint with the Panthers — tagged Rangers center Alex Wennberg (himself a former Panther) with an enormous hit in open ice.

Kulikov cut across the neutral zone and delivered a high, forceful check to Wennberg, who appeared to be shaken up but remained in the game. After initially being assessed a major penalty, Kulikov ultimately received two minutes for interference on the play.

The Rangers failed to score on that power play, and the Panthers took advantage of that missed opportunity with a goal on their next man-advantage. Fittingly, it was Verhaeghe who netted his team-leading eighth goal of the playoffs, dragging the puck around Wennberg in the high slot and whipping it past Igor Shesterkin to tie the game at one with 1:51 to play in the period.

The two teams traded chances in the second period and managed nine shots apiece, but Shesterkin and Sergei Bobrovsky shut the door at their respective ends of the ice. Shesterkin made the best save of the period on Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov to keep the game tied with less than three minutes until the intermission.

Neither team managed to score in the third period, either, but the Rangers did manage to shift the momentum a bit thanks to the physical play of Matt Rempe, who entered the lineup after being scratched for Game 1. Rempe laid a game-high nine hits in 10:06 of ice time on Friday night.

But with less than six minutes remaining in regulation time, Kulikov flipped the script on Rempe, sending all 6’8″ of him tumbling into the end boards at Madison Square Garden on a race to a loose puck in the Panthers’ zone.

Neither team managed to break the tie before the end of regulation time, setting the stage for the second consecutive evening with overtime hockey.

However, unlike Thursday’s game between the Dallas Stars and Edmonton Oilers, the Rangers and Panthers didn’t need multiple overtime periods to settle the score on Friday. Instead, it was Goodrow who sent the home fans into a frenzy with a quick shot from between the circles off a pin-point pass from Trocheck.

Goodrow, who had four goals in 80 games during the regular season, now has four goals with the Rangers in these playoffs. His goal came at the 14:01 mark of the overtime period and tied this series at one game apiece.

The Rangers outshot the Panthers 31 to 27 over 74 minutes of play on Friday evening. The two teams will reconvene on Sunday at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida for Game 3 of their Eastern Conference Final series.

Until then, it’ll be the Oilers and Stars hitting the ice in Dallas on Saturday night, with Edmonton looking to take a 2-0 series lead.

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