(Fort Lauderdale) Leaving the Florida Panthers training center Monday afternoon, Carter Verhaeghe could see about 50 fans on the side of the road, waiting for autographs.
The forward, as well as defenseman Brandon Montour, stopped and signed autographs for a while. Other players, including captain Aleksander Barkov, did the same in the following minutes.
Trailing 2-1 in the Eastern Conference final against the New York Rangers and looking for a second straight appearance in the Stanley Cup final, the Panthers have not lost hope at approaching the fourth game, Tuesday evening at home. As the players have seen, their supporters still believe in it too.
“You wake up, the sun is shining, everything is beautiful here,” Panthers forward Sam Bennett said. It’s not that difficult. »
If only defeating the Rangers was that easy.
On Sunday, the Rangers regained home ice advantage with a 5-4 overtime victory in Game 3, even though the Panthers attempted more than 100 shots in the duel.
The Panthers continued to score chances, especially late in the third period. However, goaltender Igor Shesterkin held on for the Rangers and Alexander Wennberg deflected the puck past Sergei Bobrovsky to give his team the victory in overtime.
“The third period [dimanche] was probably our toughest test of the series so far,” shared Rangers head coach Peter Laviolette.
The Panthers closed a two-goal gap to bring the score to 4-4, before losing in overtime.
For his part, Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said he thinks his team understood, after the last game, the adjustments needed for Tuesday night.
At no time will our game plan be to throw fewer pucks for better opportunities. What we want to create is definitely goals, but we scored three in the first game and four in the third game. These are not the goals [le problème]we must defend.
Panthers head coach Paul Maurice
Trouba fined
Rangers defenseman Jacob Trouba was fined US$5,000 by the NHL on Monday for his elbowing of Panthers forward Evan Rodrigues. Contact was made at the height of the neck and head.
During the sequence, Trouba was sent off for two minutes for elbowing.
“Take the hat and pass it on,” Maurice said of the fine.
Sunday was the 17the time in 175 playoff games that a team scored at least four goals against the Rangers and didn’t win.
The Panthers led the league in third-period goal differential this season (99-63). In the playoffs, the team scored 13 times and allowed only eight goals.
Josh Dubow contributed to the writing of this text