NEW YORK — Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 23 shots for his first shutout of the postseason, Matthew Tkachuk had a goal and an assist and the Florida Panthers beat the New York Rangers 3-0 on Wednesday night in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals.
Carter Verhaege and Sam Bennett also scored. Bobrovsky, who had six shutouts during the regular season, had the second of his career in the playoffs.
Igor Shesterkin finished with 24 saves for the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Rangers. They lost for the third time in four games after opening the postseason with seven straight wins.
Game 2 is Friday night in New York.
The Panthers went 0 for 2 on the power play and fell to 9 for 43 in the postseason. The Rangers were 0 for 1.
With Florida leading 1-0, Bobrovsky slid to his left to deny a one-timer with Kaapo Kakko 6 1/2 minutes into the third.
Oliver Ekman-Larsson looked to increase the lead when he beat Shesterkin from the left a few minutes later. However, the goal was canceled out after a challenge for goalkeeper interference as the Panthers’ Ryan Lomberg bumped into Shesterkin in the crease.
The Rangers had a bunch of chances with about seven minutes left. Alexander Wennberg was denied on two close attempts, Jacob Trouba had a shot blocked and Wennberg missed another shot seconds later.
Bobrovsky made a kick save on an Adam Fox drive on a New York power play with 5:25 to go.
The Panthers made it 2-0 when Verhaege’s centering pass for Tkachuk was deflected past Shesterkin by Lafreniere with 3:48 to go. Verhaege was given credit for his seventh of the play-offs.
The Rangers pulled Shesterkin for an extra skater with 3 1/2 minutes left but couldn’t beat Bobrovsky.
The goaltender stopped a slap shot from Mika Zibanejad to secure the shutout, and Bennett sealed the win with an empty-netter with 1:19 remaining.
Bobrovsky made a right-pad save on Will Cuylle’s breakaway attempt in the opening minute of the second period to preserve the lead. Shesterkin scored a Gustav Forsling point shot with 7 1/2 minutes remaining. Aleksander Barkov came close, but his backhand attempt went off Shesterkin’s glove.
The Rangers had four shots on goal in the first 1:55 of the second period, then went nearly 14 1/2 minutes without one until Adam Fox’s try with 3:42 left.
The Rangers got their first power play when Bennett was ejected for holding the stick with 1:26 left in the middle period. They managed to take the lead by two shots.
Tkachuk opened the scoring late in the first period. Forsling brought the puck to the left side and dropped a pass to Tkachuk, who beat Shesterkin from the left circle over the goalie’s glove with 3:34 left. It was his fifth goal and 15th point in the playoffs.
About 1:15 later, Schneider got a breakaway and fired a shot past Bobrovsky that hit the goal post.
The Rangers had Filip Chytil back for the second time in the postseason. He missed the final 72 games of the regular season due to an injury believed to be a concussion before returning for Game 3 of the second round against Carolina and then was out for the remainder of the series.
