The New York Rangers and the Florida Panthers found themselves locked in a ferocious battle in South Florida on Sunday afternoon. After splitting the series in the first two games, the location moved 1,200 miles down I-95 for the next pair of contests in the best-of-7 matchup, Game 3 and Game 4, of the 2024 Eastern Conference Finals.
In a wildly entertaining game that required overtime, the home crowd exited the arena dejected just like New York Rangers fans in Game 1. Florida officially out-shot New York 37-23 on the expensive hanging scoreboard. However, the shot attempts for Florida soared closer to triple digits by the time the Rangers ended the game.
The nightmare fuel of flying plastic carnivores will have to wait at least one more day as the New York Rangers celebrated in the corner of Amerant Bank Arena following a 5-4 overtime win in Game 3 based upon the efforts of their non-star forwards.
Wennberg Nets OT for New York Rangers in Game 3
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Alex Wennberg scored his first goal of the 2024 postseason giving the New York Rangers their first series advantage, 2-games-to-1, in the ECF. Wennberg deflected a shot from defenseman Ryan Lindgren off his left hockey glove over the left shoulder of Panthers’ goalie Sergei Bobrovsky. Since Wennberg made no motion to direct the puck into the net with his hand intentionally, the goal counted as a legal scoring opportunity.
Despite scoring the deciding goal, Wennberg deferred to the time-first mentality post-game:
“This is a team,” said Wennberg, who had one goal in his first 31 games with the Rangers since being acquired in March from Seattle for draft picks. “It doesn’t matter who’s the hero. It doesn’t matter who does it, we have everyone fighting for one another. Yeah, maybe I haven’t put up the same amount of points, but we’re a team. Everything we do we do together.”
Florida had controlled much of the play late in the game and into the “free hockey” overtime period. New York Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin held the fort as Florida drove the puck at him in waves until the Blueshirts mounted that successful counterpunch at 5:25 of the OT frame.
Barclay Goodrow Paying Postseason Dividends on Broadway
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If I had to make a guess, the stock of Barclay Goodrow is surging like GameStop (GME) during the middle of the pandemic. If you aren’t familiar with the legendary story, the videogame store stock surged to a 22-year high driven by Reddit and social media talking about the short squeeze situation.
The return on investment that Goodrow has given the New York Rangers for sticking with him all season is paying off HANDSOMELY in the 2024 Eastern Conference Finals with four goals in three games.
Goodrow has 6 playoff goals, which eclipses his previous career-high during the playoffs (2). The forward had 6 TOTAL goals in 81 NHL Stanley Cup playoff games before his postseason explosion this series. With 8 points, Goodrow has also established a new career high points total (6) despite having played fewer games thus far this postseason in a pair of Stanley Cup Finals appearances with Tampa Bay in 2020 and 2021.
Barclay Goodrow skated in 80 games and scored only 12 points while featuring a head-scratching -13 plus/minus as a depth forward for the New York Rangers this season. Goodrow has typically been a plus player during his career with San Jose, Tampa, and the Rangers over the last three seasons.
Why all of these words about some role player for New York? Goodrow scored twice in Game 3 for New York, including a stunning short-handed goal. He scored the OT winner in Game 2 for the New York Rangers. At this point, Barclay Goodrow has been one of the more influential players not equipped with a goalie mask in this fierce battle for Eastern Conference supremacy.
Game Four In South Florida Tuesday Night
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The Florida Panthers likely felt good about their situation heading into Game 3 with a series. In the NHL Playoffs, overtime losses happen even if it takes multiple overtime periods to do it. Florida’s bench boss understands that some of those OT losses burn a little more than others:
“Sometimes you want to keep the growl,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “A lot of times in the playoffs, it’s making sure that you keep that energy full, that you cut off your losses and let it go. Then there’s times you want to keep it and eat it and let it burn for a while and find a different kind of energy source. … Tonight, you should be a little growly.”
The Florida Panthers will have a chance to test that roar and even up the series against the New York Rangers in Game 4 tomorrow evening at home in Sunrise, Florida.
About The Author
Christopher Babos is a genuine sports & entertainment journalist with diverse credentials in writing, broadcasting, and digital media. Additional insightful sports articles are located here. He can be located on X for real-time takes (@CBabosWrites).
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