Rangers at Panthers
The rejuvenated New York Rangers hope to build off their best four consecutive periods of the season when they visit the struggling Florida Panthers on Saturday night. The Rangers scored four unanswered goals in the third period to beat Vegas on Tuesday and came back to knock off one of the league’s best in October with a 2-1 overtime triumph at Tampa Bay two days later.
“It’s definitely something that we can look to,” New York defenseman Marc Staal told reporters. “It’s definitely something we can fall back to when things aren’t going our way. We have to look to continue to keep that effort all game long.” The Rangers have gained at least a point in six of their last eight games (4-2-2) overall while the Panthers have allowed 15 goals in the last two contests - four of them on the power play. Goalie James Reimer has surrendered nine goals on 38 shots over the past two contests - an 8-5 loss to Florida and Thursday’s 7-3 setback against Columbus - but the demise has been a team effort. “A loss is a loss is a loss,” Florida captain Derek MacKenzie told reporters. “It’s tough to win. But those are excuses and we don’t want to use excuses. We have what we need in this room to win games on most nights and, right now, we’re not doing it.”
TV: 7 p.m. ET, MSG (New York), FSN Florida
ABOUT THE RANGERS (5-7-2): Center Mika Zibanejad notched an assist on Chris Krieder’s goal Thursday to extend his point streak to five games (three goals, five assists) and leads the team with 14 points overall. Krieder owns goals in three of his last four contests and J.T. Miller tallied the winner on Thursday to end a six-game scoring drought, remaining tied with defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk for second on the team with 11 points. Defenseman Nick Holden returned to the lineup in place of Brendan Smith on Thursday, playing at least 20 minutes for the second time this season.
ABOUT THE PANTHERS (4-7-1): While Florida has struggled to keep the puck out of the net, it has put up 18 goals in its last four games and four of its forwards are averaging at least one point per contest - Evgenii Dadonov, Vincent Trocheck, Jonathan Huberdeau and Aleksander Barkov. Reimer has gotten all the starts since Roberto Luongo (hand) went down and was pulled in each of the last two contests in favor of Antti Niemi. “Obviously, stats don’t lie,” Florida coach Bob Boughner told reporters. “He’s fighting it a little bit. We’re trying to tighten up and support him the best we can.”
OVERTIME
1. The Rangers own at least a point in four straight games against the Panthers (2-0-2), losing a pair of shootouts.
2. Florida Fs Colton Sceviour (upper-body), Jared McCann (lower-body) and Connor Brickley (upper-body) could all return to the lineup Saturday.
3. New York LW Rick Nash is tied with Zibanejad for the team lead with 48 shots, but has managed just two goals.