The Rangers put forth a far better effort Tuesday night than they had two nights prior, or than they had two days prior to that.
There was more battle, more possession, more chances.
The ice did not feel tilted against them, at least for 40 minutes.
But again, the best player on the ice was the goalie, and again, the Rangers did not do enough to help him out.
The first part of that is pretty much a given with Igor Shesterkin, even more so in these playoffs.
If the Rangers can somehow make it out of this series after a 3-2 loss to the Panthers on Thursday night to get Florida within a victory of the Cup Final, Shesterkin will surely be the front-runner for the Conn Smythe Trophy.
The Rangers know it, too.
After old friend Niko Mikkola trucked the netminder on a shorthanded rush early in the second, a trio of Rangers jumped onto the Panther defenseman.
Erik Gustafsson ended up going a step too far in the process and costing the Rangers a five-on-three, but it was a message even coach Peter Laviolette didn’t really blame him for sending.
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“At that point in the game, you probably want the five-on-three, [but] it’s understandable as a reaction out there,” Laviolette said. “Players are in scrums, it’s been a physical series the whole time. And so somebody jumps in there defending a goalie, you admire that, but it’s also playoff hockey too, so we gotta keep things under control.”
With the Rangers under pressure in the final period, Shesterkin stopped a pair of between-the-legs chances in front from Eetu Luostarinen and Anton Lundell — and in the first 10 minutes of the third alone, he’d stopped five total high-danger chances, per Natural Stat Trick.
Lundell eventually broke through to give Florida the 2-1 lead on the next grade-A chance.
And outside of a power play during which the Rangers didn’t really come close to scoring, they had yet to see nearly enough of the puck in the third period.
Even after that, Shesterkin kept up his end of the bargain, earning “Ig-or” chants with a windmill save on Sam Reinhart with 5:49 to go.
Shesterkin, who had a pretty great first 40 minutes too, has been the best player in the series, bar none.
He’s the guy being asked to do the most, and he’s playing the part well, with 32 stops Thursday.
Right now, he’s the biggest reason to believe they can come back in this series.
“Obviously we have the best goalie,” Mika Zibanejad said. “And they have a very good goalie as well.”
The Rangers would do well to take advantage of that.
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