Panthers defeat Rangers in shootout

NEW YORK -- Aleksander Barkov and Vincent Trocheck scored in a shootout to give the Florida Panthers a 3-2 win against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Sunday.
James Reimer made saves on Mats Zuccarello and Brandon Pirri in the shootout. He finished with 33 saves through regulation and overtime.
Keith Yandle and Aaron Ekblad scored in regulation for the Panthers (10-8-1), who won three games on their now completed four-game road trip and have won four of their past five. They also defeated the Montreal Canadiens and Ottawa Senators on the road trip.

"It's a really big thing that we got six points out of eight on this road trip," Barkov said. "Every team we played against is in our division or conference so it's a good thing that we got three wins. It's good to go back home right now and play even better."
WATCH: All Panthers vs. Rangers highlights
Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad scored for the Rangers (13-5-1). Henrik Lundqvist made 28 saves.
Zibanejad
broke his left fibula
when he fell awkwardly into the end boards 41 seconds into overtime. He will miss 6-8 weeks, Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said.

"Every coach says it in these moments, it's an opportunity for somebody else to get more ice time," Vigneault said.
The Panthers, who won 4-1 in Ottawa on Saturday, looked like they might be tired from the back-to-back in the first period. They were outshot 10-0 in the final 11:37 of the period. Kreider scored with 6:45 remaining.
However, a concealing the puck penalty on Rangers defenseman Brady Skjei at 13:17 of the second period gave the Panthers life and 1:26 later Yandle scored his first of the season with a slap shot from the left point.
Zibanejad gave the Rangers a 2-1 lead at 1:45 of the third period, but Ekblad scored 6:09 later on a shot from above the right circle that hit off of Rangers forward J.T. Miller.

Miller came across the zone in an attempt to block the shot, but all it did was ricochet off of him and fool Lundqvist, who was not pleased and later had a talk with Miller.
"We want guys to block shots and he's trying," Lundqvist said. "From that distance, I should stop it if no one is in front of me, so it's kind of that conversation we had that if he doesn't have time to get there with his body maybe just leave that shot for me."

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Goal of the game

Zibanejad's goal was interesting to say the least. Zuccarello and Jimmy Vesey did a weave high in the zone. Vesey passed it across to Zuccarello, but Reilly Smith got in the way. The puck still came to Zuccarello, whose backhand pass from the left circle hit off of Zibanejad's left skate in front of the net with Skjei falling backward into the crease.

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Saves of the game

Lundqvist made back-to-back saves on Jaromir Jagr, one from point-blank range at the left hash marks and then on his backhand off the rebound, before covering the puck at 10:33 of the third period. The saves came less than three minutes after Ekblad scored.

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Highlight of the game

Barkov's shootout move to beat Lundqvist worked well enough. He came in slow, kicked the puck off of his left skate to his forehand and kept it there until he got close. He deked to his backhand, avoided Lundqvist's pokecheck, and with his right hand on the stick got enough on the shot to send the puck trickling over the goal line.

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Unsung moment of the game

Panthers defenseman Mark Pysyk broke up a 2-on-1 with Miller and Kevin Hayes at 15:15 of the first period, two minutes after Kreider scored. If the Rangers convert on that 2-on-1 the Panthers would have been down 2-0 early in the second half of a back-to-back.

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They said it

"I've been trying to do that [shootout move] since the summer, but not that way. I got a little bit lucky. He pokechecked on me and it went in kind of in slow motion." -- Panthers center Aleksander Barkov on his shootout winner
"I thought after that start we had, especially in the first, we had a good feeling. It felt like it was a game we could win. I think the second half of the game they started to play better, more speed, and they kept coming to the net a lot more. It was hard to predict where this one was going, but when we did score that second goal it felt like we had things under control. It was just a fluky one that tied it up." -- Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist

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Need to know

Lundqvist played in his 700th NHL game. He is the first goalie to play 700 games with the Rangers. … The Panthers have 21 points through 19 games. They had 19 points through 19 games last season (8-8-3), when they won the Atlantic Division with 103 points.

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What's next

Panthers: Home against the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday (7:30 p.m. ET; FS-F, CNS-PH, TVA Sports, NHL.TV)
Rangers: At the Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday (7 p.m. ET; MSG, ROOT, NHL.TV)