Rangers 5, Panthers 4 (OT)
SUNRISE, Fla. -- New York center Rick Nash had a hat trick, including the game-winner on the power play in overtime, as the Rangers beat the Florida Panthers 5-4 at BB&T Center on Saturday.
Center Mats Zuccarello and left winger Viktor Stalberg also scored for New York (15-3-2).
Zuccarello and defenseman Ryan McDonagh each had two assists, and centers Oscar Lindberg, J.T. Miller and Derick Brassard and defenseman Dan Boyle each had one.
Center Nick Bjugstad, left winger Jussi Jokinen, center Aleksander Barkov and right winger Jaromir Jagr scored for Florida (8-8-4).
Panthers center Brandon Pirri, Jokinen and defenseman Aaron Ekblad had a pair of assists. Right winger Reilly Smith also had one.
New York goaltender Henrik Lundqvist made 39 saves. Florida’s Roberto Luongo stopped 26 shots.
With Florida on the penalty kill because of too many men on the ice, Nash fired a shot past Luongo from the right circle for the game-winner at 2:01 of overtime. The shot came off assists from Brassard and Boyle.
Nash scored at 11:08 of the first period by lifting a shot over Luongo’s glove from below the right circle off a diagonal pass from McDonagh.
The goal, Nash’s third, came shortly after New York killed off a 5-on-3 power play for the Panthers and gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead at the break. Zuccarello also assisted on the play.
Florida answered Nash’s marker in the second when Ekblad kept a puck in the zone and flipped it to Jokinen. He found Pirri, who slid the puck to Bjugstad in the low slot for his seventh goal.
Nash added his second at 13:22 with the scored tied 1-1 by getting possession of the puck near his own blue line and racing shoulder-to-shoulder with Bjugstad. Nash powered his way past the 6-foot-6 Bjugstad and beat Luongo on the short side for a 2-1 New York lead. Zuccarello had the lone assist on the goal.
Jokinen scored a power-play goal at 17:57, his fifth, when he redirected Pirri’s blast from above the right circle to tie it at 2-2. Smith assisted on the goal.
In the third period, Zuccarello took a long stretch pass from McDonagh after the defenseman had intercepted a pass on a Florida rush. Zuccarello deked Luongo to the right then slipped the puck past the Panthers' goalie for his 10th goal and a 3-2 lead at 10:16.
Stalberg scored his second from the left circle at 12:14 off a pass from Lindberg to make it 4-2.
Florida scored two goals 39 seconds apart to tie it again. Both goals were scored with Luongo on the bench and the Panthers with an extra attacker.
Barkov scored Florida’s second power-play goal at 17:32 to cut the deficit to 4-3.
After Ekblad’s shot rang off the crossbar, Jagr whipped a shot past Lundqvist at 18:11.
Florida’s Smith was immediately dragged down on a breakaway attempt seven seconds later, but he failed to convert the penalty shot past a sprawling Lundqvist.
NOTES: New York scratched D Dylan McIlrath and RW Emerson Etem. ... The team's 14 wins in the first 19 games was a franchise record. ... The Rangers return to New York for games against Nashville and Montreal on Monday and Wednesday. ... G Henrik Lundqvist made his eighth start in New York's last 10 games, while Florida's Roberto Luongo started his seventh straight contest. ... The Panthers scratched LWs Shawn Thornton and Garrett Wilson plus D Dmitry Kulikov, who missed his third game due to a knee injury suffered in Tampa in a 5-4 shootout win last Saturday. ... The game was the third of a five-game homestand for Florida, which hosts the Los Angeles Kings on Monday and the New York Islanders on Friday.