How the Rangers stole Game 3 in overtime: 5 takeaways (2024)

SUNRISE, Fla. — Alex Wennberg got a piece of Ryan Lindgren’s point shot 5:35 into overtime and the New York Rangers stole Game 3.

Wennberg deflected Lindgren’s shot past Sergei Bobrovsky to end a wild 5-4 Rangers victory. The Rangers brought a 4-2 lead into the third period but Florida swarmed back, tying the game and barely allowing the Rangers to get to OT. Igor Shesterkin made 34 saves and half a dozen in the final minutes of the third.

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Even in overtime, the Florida Panthers controlled most of the play. But off a Florida zone draw, Wennberg won the puck back and found himself alone in front to redirect the shot for the winner.

Alexis Lafrenière’s second of the game was a pretty rush move around a Florida defenseman and Bobrovsky to give the Rangers a 3-2 lead with 4:23 left in the second. And Barclay Goodrow’s second came during a four-minute Panthers power play, with Jacob Trouba off for two minors, the second of which was a high hit on Evan Rodrigues that was knocked down from a major to a minor on review.

Goodrow’s goal made it 4-2 heading to the second intermission and seemed to take some life out of the Panthers, who had controlled play for long stretches of the first 40 minutes. But Florida gathered itself and went back to work in the third to pull even. Carter Verhaeghe moved up to the Panthers’ top line in the third, threw a centering feed that banked off Aleksander Barkov and behind Shesterkin to cut the Rangers lead to one at 5:04 of the third. Then Gustav Forsling tied it just 1:54 later, snapping one by Shesterkin after a faceoff win.

Shesterkin got the Rangers to overtime pretty much by himself, making five saves on a late third-period Panthers power play, and then denied Matthew Tkachuk alone in front in the final minute of regulation. After 60 minutes, the Panthers held a 94-35 shot attempt edge.

The Panthers struck twice on the power play in the first period, both goals from Sam Reinhart in tight. Reinhart walked the goal line to the net front and flipped a backhand over Shesterkin to start the scoring, then he tied it with a bank shot off Trouba’s skate and in. Between those two goals, Lafrenière scored on a backhand off the rush and Goodrow briefly gave the Rangers a lead with a nice mid-air tip 25 seconds later.

Wennberg an unlikely hero

Wennberg, whom the Rangers got before the trade deadline from the Seattle Kraken for a third-round pick, had been a solid third-line center all postseason but without much offense — his winner on Sunday was just his 11th shot on goal in 13 playoff games. But it figured it would take an unlikely Ranger to win a game they barely had any business being in, given how dominant the Panthers were for the majority of Game 3.

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Lafrenière and Goodrow had big games, the Rangers’ big guns were incredibly silent and Wennberg got to play the hero.

Panthers control the trenches

Florida owned the space below the hash marks in the Rangers zone from the outset of Game 3, cycling the Rangers into a state of disarray often. Shesterkin allowed Reinhart’s first goal from in tight, but he was otherwise as good as he could have been, beaten in close by a bad bounce on Reinhart’s second goal and a carom off Barkov’s shin.

The Rangers were able to exit the zone with some speed on rare occasions but they spent way too much time defending — and losing battles to — Florida’s forwards along the walls and behind the net.

Tkachuk led the way for the Panthers, playing an effective game in the offensive zone. After regulation, the Panthers held a ridiculous 53-4 shot attempt edge with Tkachuk on the ice.

Goody Mob strikes again

Goodrow’s remarkable run continued in Game 3 with his first two-goal game since New Year’s Eve of 2021, and they were incredibly timely goals.

His first, scored 25 seconds after Lafrenière’s first to tie the game in the opening period, was a nifty deflection of a Braden Schneider shot that went down, off the far post and in. Schneider and Goodrow connected on a similar goal in Game 4 against the Carolina Hurricanes. Matt Rempe was also stationed in front of Bobrovsky, taking up his usual space.

Goodrow’s second was a laser off a Vincent Trocheck feed during the four-minute Panthers power play with 1:46 left in the second to extend the Rangers lead to 4-2. That one, coming after Trouba’s controversial hit on Rodrigues, felt like a real stake in the heart of the Panthers after the home side had been effective on the power play in the first period.

Now with three goals in his last two games and six in 13 postseason contests after just four in 80 regular-season games, Goodrow is edging into some rare territory. Old Ranger heads might recall Capitals one-postseason wonder John Druce, who scored nine goals in five games when Washington eliminated the Rangers in the second round of the 1990 playoffs after scoring just eight goals in 45 regular-season games that season.

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Maybe this is some cosmic revenge for that performance 34 years ago.

Laf’s sweet backhand, times two

Lafrenière’s postseason is more of a continuation of his regular season, but like Goodrow, Laf has raised the bar this playoffs, and it hit the pinnacle on Sunday afternoon with a pair of backhand goals that deserve their own highlight reels.

The second one will stand the test of time for sure. After a fairly sleepy second period in which the Rangers didn’t generate much, Lafrenière came flying down the left side, walked around Dmitry Kulikov, pulled the puck back to his backhand as Bobrovsky went down and banked his shot off the post and in to give the Rangers the lead for good.

His first goal, on a clearer break-in with a top-shelf backhand finish to wake the Rangers up 7:17 into the game, wasn’t quite as amazing but still as important.

On the heels of his big hit to blow up Verhaeghe and get the Rangers on the board early in Game 2, this has been the Laf-and-Goody show so far this series. As we all expected.

Trouba avoids major trouble

Trouba’s elbow to Rodrigues late in the second was a real turning point, just not in the way most thought on initial viewing. The referees’ review with the NHL’s Situation Room produced a minor penalty — the back-side replay seemed to show that Trouba made initial contact below Rodrigues’ head and Rodrigues did return for part of the power play in the second — and that gave the Rangers a bit of relief, as they not only avoided having to kill off a major penalty but they also got to keep Trouba in the game.

Trouba was also already on the hook for a slash earlier in the sequence, so it could have been a long stretch of penalty killing had it been ruled otherwise. If NHL Player Safety has anything to say about Trouba’s hit, we’ll find out on Monday, since that department is not involved in adjudicating calls made during games. Player Safety head George Parros was on hand for Game 3.

(Photo: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)

Arthur Staple has covered New York hockey for The Athletic since 2019, initially on the Islanders beat before moving over to primarily focus on the Rangers in 2021. Previously, he spent 20 years at Newsday, where he covered everything from high schools to the NFL. Follow Arthur on Twitter @stapeathletic