Florida Panthers come out on top, defeat the New York Rangers 5-4

After defeating the New Jersey Devils just a day ago, the Florida Panthers were heading into the big apple looking to extend their win streak to two.

The Panthers got off to another wonderful start and were pouring pressure down deep in Rangers territory. Goaltender Henrik Lundqvist has been hot the last few games, meaning that the Cats would have to test him early on.

Florida did just that and found themselves on the score board five minutes into the hockey game. On the power play, Jonathan Huberdeau’s wrister was tipped in front from Barkov and into the net. The Panthers would only continue marching from there, potting in another goal four minutes later.

Jamie McGinn received a beautiful pass from Nick Bjugstad and sniped a shot home, top-shelf. The goal would give the Cats a two goal lead, with just under ten minutes into the period. The Cats weren’t finished there as Micheal Haley recorded his first goal as a Panther, giving his side a three goal lead.

The goal would mark the end of Lundqvist’s night, prompting for Alain Vigneault to call upon Ondrej Pavelec to go in between the pipes. Haley’s goal would send the Panthers into the dressing room three goals up, after one period of play.

Like the Panthers did in the first, was the same thing the Rangers would do in the second. That of course would be: getting off to a fast start. New York wasted no time in the opening minutes of the second and quickly found the back of the net. J.T. Miller would be the first to put the Rangers on the board.

A couple of minutes after the Miller goal and the Panthers answered right back. Michael Matheson’s initial shot found Huberdeau in the crease, where Johnny would finish on the door step:

It seemed as if the Cats were running away with this one, but the Rangers had other plans. Less than a minute after Huberdeau’s goal and the Rangers were back on the board. Pavel Buchnevich buried a cross-crease pass from Chris Kreider, cutting the Panthers lead down to two (4-2).

The Rangers quickly found themselves on the score sheet once again, respectfully coming from Chris Kreider. The goal was a thing of beauty, developing from a tic-tac-toe play:

New York tied the game, but the goal was immediately waved off. The call on the play was for goaltender interference, which the refs later had to go upstairs and review. After Vigneault challenged the play, the call on the ice stood the same: NO GOAL!

The Panthers were lucky to escape that goal and were fortunate enough to be heading into the second intermission a goal up. Florida had one more period remaining, hopeful that they could survive another 20 minutes of play.

The boys managed to survive parts of the final period, which ultimately wasn’t enough. Chris Kreider and co. would even up the game with seven and a half minutes remaining. Suddenly, the Cats managed to blow a three goal lead.

But all of that didn’t matter though as Denis Malgin would prompt the Panthers to their second straight victory, scoring in the final minutes of the game:

Overall, it was nice to see the Panthers come out on top once again, but we mustn’t forget the defensive lapses that were shown in tonight’s game. Your Florida Panthers are back in action against the San Jose Sharks on Friday, December 1st @7:30pm.