Rangers score 4 straight to rally past Panthers, who finish 3rd in Atlantic

SUNRISE, Fla. -- Vincent Trocheck broke a tie with a short-handed goal at 3:40 of the third period, and the New York Rangers scored four straight times to rally for a 5-3 win against the Florida Panthers at Amerant Bank Arena on Monday.

The Panthers will finish third in the Atlantic Division with the regulation loss. The Toronto Maple Leafs lead the Tampa Bay Lightning by four points for first with two games remaining for each team.

“This group has been through it enough before and this is a tight time of year when you want to be playing,” Florida forward Sam Reinhart said. “We’re excited about it.”

Juuso Parssinen, J.T. Miller, and Matt Rempe each had a goal and an assist for the Rangers (38-36-7), who had lost four of five (1-4-0) and were previously eliminated from Stanley Cup Playoff contention. Jonathan Quick made 27 saves.

“The effort was pretty complete for 60 minutes,” New York coach Peter Laviolette said. “It was good.”

Reinhart scored twice, and Carter Verhaeghe also scored for the Panthers (47-30-4), who had won three straight. Sergei Bobrovsky made 20 saves.

The Panthers will visit the Lightning in their regular-season finale on Tuesday.

“We’ll play as hard as we possibly can with the players we have,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “We have some guys who have played nine games in 15 days, and you saw it tonight. I thought that had a lot to do with us not being able to push at the end.”

Reinhart gave the Panthers a 1-0 lead on the power play at 2:22 of the first period, scoring on a one-timer from the slot off a pass from Sam Bennett from the right circle.

Bennett was making his return from an upper-body injury he sustained during a 3-0 loss at the Ottawa Senators on April 5.

Rempe tied it 1-1 at 8:43. He deflected K'Andre Miller’s point shot before following up on his own rebound and sweeping the puck into the net.

“It was a good night,” Rempe said. “I went to the net and got the rebound."

Verhaeghe put Florida back ahead 2-1 at 4:32 of the second period. He went to the front of the net and had Gustav Forsling’s point shot bounce in off Quick’s pad and his shin guards.

Reinhart’s second goal of the game extended it to 3-1 at 13:54. He skated into the slot and scored off a backhand pass from Aleksander Barkov from behind the net.

Parssinen cut it to 3-2 at 15:55 by deflecting K’Andre Miller’s shot. J.T. Miller then tied it 3-3 at 17:33 off a 2-on-1, scoring on a pass through the crease from Mika Zibanejad.

“Just a couple of mistakes,” Reinhart said. “The first half, our game gap was great. Then we came off of it, and they put it in the back of our net."

Trocheck, who was playing in his 800th NHL game, gave the Rangers a 4-3 lead on the penalty kill early in the third by connecting on a backhand feed from J.T. Miller.

“We were in good shape at 3-1, then made a couple of mistakes,’’ Maurice said. “The short-handed goal is kind of a dagger for you. Not much of an offensive push."

Jonny Brodzinski retrieved a rebound that alluded Bobrovsky and knocked it in at 16:31 for the 5-3 final.

The Rangers conclude their regular season Thursday at home against the Lightning.

“We’re still trying to win even though we’re out of the playoffs,’’ Parssinen said. “You always want to win. We have to be proud and play for our fans even though we’re not making the playoffs.’’

NOTES: Rangers defenseman Matthew Robertson had two shots on goal in 15:24 of ice time in his NHL debut. A second-round pick (No. 49) by the Rangers in the 2019 NHL Draft, Robertson had spent much of the previous four seasons playing for Hartford of the American Hockey League. “I’m not going to lie, I was a little nervous, but the guys were super-welcoming,” Robertson. “They made it a lot of fun.” … Trocheck played his first 420 career games with the Panthers, who drafted him in the third round (No. 64) in the 2011 NHL Draft. … Defenseman Dmitry Kulikov also returned for the Panthers after missing the previous 14 games with an upper-body injury. He had two shots on goal in 19:36 of ice time.