NEW YORK — Barclay Goodrow scored at 2:01 of overtime and the New York Rangers defeated the Florida Panthers 2-1 in Game 2 on Friday night to tie the Eastern Conference finals.
Goodrow fired a shot from above that circled over goalkeeper Sergei Bobrovsky’s right shoulder, sending the tense crowd at Madison Square Garden into a frenzy.
Vincent Trocheck scored early and Igor Shesterkin made 26 saves for New York. They benefited from the excitement of having stalwart Matt Rempe back in the line-up and showed a lot more life after being bowled out 3-0 in the opener.
Carter Verhaeghe scored for Florida and Bobrovsky made 29 saves. The Panthers lost away from home in the playoffs for just the second time in seven games.
The series shifts to Florida for Games 3 and 4 on Sunday and Tuesday.
The Rangers missed a good chance earlier in overtime when a rebound from Chris Kreider’s shot bounced to Filip Chytil, but his shot toward an open net hit the back of Panthers defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson and went just wide.
Rangers fans and pundits got what they wanted when coach Peter Laviolette put Rempe in the lineup and he delighted them by consistently hitting Panthers players and even winning a face-off.
His presence alone seemed to ignite the crowd and the team and New York struggled to start, with the Rangers converting early on Trocheck’s seventh goal of the playoffs (4:12) after the opening faceoff . The play was set up by a clash between Verhaeghe and Alexis Lafreniere and it allowed Fox to find Trocheck for a backdoor burglary.
A skirmish ensued after the goal – involving Verhaeghe and Lafreniere – and New York got a power play. The Rangers didn’t convert on that one and another at 10:04 when Dmitry Kulikov got two minutes for a hit to Alex Wennberg’s head. It was graded for a major.
Florida got its first power play late with 2:50 left in the period and Verhaeghe converted from straight after avoiding a block attempt by Wennberg.
