Florida Panthers Bounce Back To Win 4-3 Against The Rangers
Tonight’s game was the second of a back to back, in which the Panthers played the night before against Columbus. A win would surely inspire the boys to keep on going, no matter what.
The game couldn’t have started off any worse than it did. Two and a half minutes into the first, Mats Zuccarello slotted home the first goal of the game. Defense was caught puck watching on the play and did not pick up their guy. From here on then things only got worse..
Two minutes after the Rangers first goal, J.T Miller picked up New York’s second goal of the night and quickly turned this game into a one-sided goal fest. It seemed as if the Cats were not interested in winning this hockey game. Defense were getting beat to the puck, forwards were stripped of the puck in the neutral zone, and James Reimer was fighting every shot he faced. The game was quickly getting out of hand.
After a 15 minute regroup during first intermission, the Cats came out strong in the opening minutes of the second period. A minute in a half into the second, Jonathan Huberdeau picked up a loose rebound and picked up Florida’s first goal of the hockey game.
Minutes after the first goal,
sent a beautiful cross ice pass to
, who buries it home on the power play. The Cats tie the game at two goals a piece. See below the beautiful feed that Vanek gave to Jokinen.
Aleksander Barkov opened the scoring in the third to give the Cats their first lead of the game. The goal came off a beautiful one-two feed between both Jagr and Huberdeau. The Panthers came back from a 2-0 deficit, and suddenly turned the game around in their favor.
Unfortunately, the lead did not last long as Mats Zuccarello notched his second goal of the hockey game, to tie the game up at three goals a piece. The game quickly swung back in favor of the Rangers. The game ended 3-3 at the end of overtime, and shootout was needed to break the tie.
Next: Florida Panthers Fall 2-1 To The Columbus Blue Jackets
Shootout was next, and as we all know, no one likes the shootout. The best team doesn’t always win in shootout, and it becomes a “skills competition”, rather than a fair way to decide the winner of the game.
James Reimer stopped Zuccarello,
, and
all in a row to give the Cats a chance to win. Needless to say, it was yours truly, Aleksander Barkov who won the shootout with a filthy goal against
. Barkov can always be trusted and relied upon in these situations. Lets relive the goal, one more time!
The Florida Panthers are back at it on Sunday, against the Pittsburgh Penguins. We all know that this game will be a tough one, and that our best effort will be needed in order to grab the two points.