Rangers show fight against Panthers but drop fourth straight

SUNRISE, Fla. — When you lose for the 15th time in the last 19 games, can you take solace from playing two straight good games?

Probably not, but that’s what the Rangers have to consider now as they closed out 2024 with a good, but losing effort to the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers on Monday night at Amerant Bank Arena.

Jesper Boqvist scored twice and goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky made 33 saves as the Panthers beat the Rangers, 5-3, handing them their fourth straight loss.

The Rangers rallied from an early two-goal deficit to tie it at 2 in the second period, and rallied again in the third to tie it at 3 on a power-play goal by Chris Kreider at 5:19.

The Rangers’ struggles on the power play had prompted coach Peter Laviolette to make a change in the makeup of the two units, dropping Mika Zibanejad to second unit and replacing him with Alexis Lafreniere. The power play, which entered Monday scoreless in its last 23 chances, came up empty on its first two tries. But when Carter Verhaeghe went to the box for tripping at 4:56 of the third, Kreider banged in a feed from Artemi Panarin.

But Boqvist broke that deadlock at 11:38, when he popped in the rebound of shot by his brother, Adam. Jesper Boqvist had broken in alone on Shesterkin, who made the save, but Jesper Boqvist slid into the corner, got up, and was in perfect position to put in the rebound.

At the Rangers’ final practice of the year on Sunday, Laviolette was asked how a team that seems to have lost all confidence can get it back.

“It takes a win,’’ Laviolette said. “You’ve got to figure out how to find a way to win. And inside of that, there’ll be goals scored and lines can gain confidence. Players can gain confidence. A power play can gain confidence. You know, losing is something that takes away from all of that.’’

But if the Rangers needed to find a way to win, surely falling behind by two goals little more than five minutes into the game was not the preferred way to go about it.

Eetu Luostarinen got the Panthers started when he tipped in a shot by Gustav Forsling at 3:04. The play started with Sam Bennett’s shot, which was kicked out to the high slot by Shesterkin. Mika Zibanejad got to the puck first and tried a blind backhand clear that went right to Forsling.

Mackie Samoskevich made it 2-0 at 5:21 when he deflected in a shot by Dmitry Kulikov.

But the Rangers did not fold. They kept pressing and firing shots at Bobrovsky. Filip Chytil, who had spoken on Sunday about the need for the Rangers to regain their confidence, was skating forcefully, bringing the puck up the ice with speed and creating chances. On the Rangers’ second power play, he hit the post, and Laviolette kept giving him more and more ice time.

Eventually, Chytil broke through, burying the rebound of a shot by Brett Berard to get the Rangers on the board at 14:25 of the second period. Then, less than two minutes later, low-scoring defenseman Ryan Lindgren came out of the left corner and drove the net to redirect a pass from his defense partner, Adam Fox in for his second goal at 16:17, tying the score at 2.

Florida pushed back and retook the lead just 38 seconds later. Shesterkin had done the splits to stop a wraparound attempt by Anton Lundell at the right goalpost, but Carter Verhaeghe jammed at Shesterkin’s skate, forcing the puck loose and leaving Boqvist with an empty net to shoot at.