RECAP: Rangers 5, Panthers 3

SUNRISE, Fla. – In the penultimate game of their regular season, the Florida Panthers let an early lead slip away in a 5-3 loss to the New York Rangers at Amerant Bank Arena on Monday.

With their winning streak snapped at three games, the Panthers now sit at 47-30-4.

“I think we were in good shape at 3-1,” head coach Paul Maurice said. “A couple mistakes. There wasn’t a whole lot of offense either way, and then the shorthanded goal is kind of the dagger. … Not much of an offensive push at the end, and I didn’t expect there to be.”

Set to defend their Stanley Cup, the Panthers are now locked into third place in the Atlantic Division.

With just one game left until the playoffs, rest will continue to be key.

“We’ll try to play as hard as we possibly can with the players that we have,” Maurice said of the team's plans for the regular-season fianle at Tampa Bay on Tuesday. “You’re starting to see it. I’ve got some guys and that’s their ninth game in 15 days. You saw it tonight. I think that had a lot to do with us not being able to push real hard at the end.”

After drawing a penalty, Sam Reinhart opened the scoring for the Panthers on the power play when he buried a slap shot from the slot to make it 1-0 just 2:22 into the first period.

Picking up right where he left off last season, the goal was his team-high 38^th of 2024-25.

“Hopefully it’s just like last year,” Reinhart said of carrying a hot stick into the playoffs.

Standing tall later in the period, the Panthers kept the Rangers off the board on a power play of their own, holding the Blueshirts to just two shots on goal over the two-minute kill.

Getting the Rangers on the board, Matt Rempe potted a rebound to make it 1-1 at 8:43.

Early in the second period, Carter Verhaeghe found the back of the net for the third straight game and a put the Panthers up 2-1 when he tipped a shot from Gustav Forsling at 4:32.

Recording his seventh multi-goal game of the season, Reinhart padded the lead for the Panthers and made it 3-1 when he beat Jonathan Quick with a shot from the slot at 13:54.

But even with the home team seemingly in control, the Rangers found new life.

Less than two minutes after Juuso Parssinen tipped a puck past Sergei Bobrovsky to cut New York’s deficit to 3-2 at 15:55, J.T. Miller lit the lamp to suddenly make it 3-3 at 17:33.

After two periods, the Panthers led 20-17 in scoring chances.

Carrying their newfound momentum into the third period, the Rangers kicked their comeback up yet another notch when former Panthers forward Vincent Trocheck, who was skating in his 800^th NHL game, scored a shorthanded goal to make it 4-3 at 3:40.

At 16:31, Jonny Brodzinski extended the lead to 5-3 for the Rangers.

“Just a couple mistakes,” Reinhart said of the loss. “The first half of the game, the gap was great. I think we came off them a little bit. They made a couple plays and put it in the back of our net. All good. Some things to clean up. Refocus and get back at it.”

THEY SAID IT

“I don’t think either team handled the puck particularly well tonight. We won’t be looking for a lot of insight into our game based on that game tonight.” – Paul Maurice on tonight’s loss

“I think this group has been through it enough before. This is the time of year when you want to be playing.” – Sam Reinhart on getting ready for the playoffs

CATS STATS

- Aleksander Barkov reached the 50-assist mark for the third straight season.

- Nate Schmidt blocked a team-high five shots.

- Jesper Boqvist logged a team-high nine hits.

- Nico Sturm went 12-for-16 (75%) in the faceoff circle.

- Florida led 24-8 in shot attempts at 5-on-5 when Carter Verhaeghe was deployed.

- Sergei Bobrovsky made three high-dangers saves, per NaturalStatTrick.com.

WHAT’S NEXT?

One more game until things get real.

Closing out their regular season, the Panthers will head across the state and wrap up their back-to-back with a battle against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. ET.

To find a place to watch in South Florida, click HERE.