Rangers Outshot, but Beats the Panthers on the Scoreboard

By Daniel Feuerstein | New York, NY | March 29th, 2026

The New York Rangers headed back to Madison Square Garden on a Sunday afternoon after a strong performance against the Blackhawks, and then came back to face the Florida Panthers. The last time they played the Ice Cats it was during the winter Classic at Loan Depot Park in Downtown Miami, where Mika Zibanejad scored the first-ever hat trick in the outdoor game. This time, a tightly contested game as all the goals were scored in the final period, as the Rangers tamed the Panthers by a final score of three to one.

Game Recap

No goals were scored in the first two periods of play, but the goaltending of Igor Shesterkin and Sergei Bobrovsky was impeccable. Making amazing pad saves and using the glove, the Panthers, though, were dominating the shots-on-goal department, leading the entire game with 27 to the Rangers’ 20. At first, it looked like the Panthers scored first at 3:26 of the third period by Matthew Tkachuk, but on the replay, his right skate was just ahead of the blue line as he tried to extend it to stay on. The officials wiped it out. But that gave the Rangers a boost and took the game over.

Down low in the far corner, the Rangers were inside the Panthers’ zone, cycling around to look for an opening. Valdisalv Gavrikov gave Noah Laba the puck at the faceoff circle, who redirected it back to Adam Fox at the point. Fox would rip the shot towards the net, but Adam Sykora skated towards the slot and redirected the puck past Bobrovsky and scored his second goal in back-to-back games, and that’s two goals in three since being called up from the Hartford Wolf Pack at 5:10 of the third period.

The Rangers were killing a penalty as Jonny Brodzinsky was serving a slashing penalty. As the penalty time was winding down and the Rangers cleared their zone, the Panthers tried to reset their attack, but at the near boards, a poor pass by Tkachuk allowed J.T. Miller to take advantage to dig it out, and saw Conor Sheary coming off the bench and rushing up the ice for a breakaway. He ripped the shot that hit Bobrovsky under his right arm and through him for a Short-Handed Goal at 11:14 of the third period.

The Panthers pulled Bobrovsky with more than five minutes remaining in the game and went with six. As they tried desperately to cut the deficit in half, they couldn’t break through Shesterkin. Will Borgin deflected the shot away from the crease, and it was picked up by Fox at the far side of the end line. He heaves it down the other end of the rink, and it slides all the way into the empty net at 16:06 of the third period. Sadly for Shesterkin, he lost his shutout when he misplayed the puck on a save, and it was batted in by Mackie Samoskevich at 19:19 of the third period.

But the Rangers handled the hard pressing pressure of the Panthers and have now taken the first two games from them this season, and they will finish the regular season in early April as they travel down to the State of Florida against the Cats and the Lightning. Some promising plays from their rookies and holding their own at the NHL level this time around.

Mike Sullivan’s Comments

“I thought we got better as the game went on, in particular the second half of the game. The second half of the second period, we started to… I think, play with the intensity that we needed to play with and the intentions that we needed to play with. And what I mean by that is when you play against a team like Florida that plays really kind of a no-nonsense, straight-ahead game. You know, they play straight ahead, they skate, they hit. They close on you. They’re one of the better teams in the league that takes time and space in all three zones. They have big mobile defensemen with long reaches, and they don’t give you a lot of time.

When you make soft plays on the entries or the exits, they tend to knock pucks down, and it makes a hard game. I thought, as the game went on, we got better at just making harder plays, playing more straight ahead, playing behind them when we had to, and then getting after them as opposed to them getting after us a little bit. And so, as I said, I thought, as the game went on, in particular the second half of the game, I thought we were a much better team,” said Mike Sullivan.

SCORING HIGH: The Rangers have scored at least three goals in three straight games, tied for the second-longest active streak in the league. Since Mar. 2, New York’s 55 goals scored are tied for the most in the NHL.

IGOR SHESTERKIN: Allowed one or fewer goals for the 10th time this season and surpassed John Vanbiesbrouck for the ninth most games in franchise history, having allowed one or fewer goals (90).

ADAM FOX: Extended his point streak to three games. Notched his 13th multi-point game of the season (1G-1A) and his 13th career multi-point third period as a Ranger, surpassing Brad Park for the fourth-most by a New York defenseman in franchise history. Since the start of the 2024-25 season, his 30 multi-point games rank seventh among all NHL blueliners. He has tallied at least one point in 11 of his last 14 games (1G-12A), and in that span, his 12 assists rank sixth in the NHL.

J.T. MILLER: Extended his point streak to three games

ADAM SYKORA: Has scored a goal in back-to-back games and is one of only three rookies in the NHL with an active goal streak. He became the second Rangers rookie (Noah Laba) to score a goal in consecutive games this season. The last time the Rangers had multiple rookies achieve the feat in the same season was in 2016-17.

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