PANTHERS BEAT RANGERS 3-2 IN GAME 5 TO MOVE WITHIN WIN OF STANLEY CUP FINAL RETURN

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 NEW YORK (AP) — The Florida Panthers are on the verge of going back to the Stanley Cup Final for the second straight year and third time in franchise history because they are finding ways to win the tight ones.

Anton Lundell broke a tie with 9:38 left and the Panthers beat the New York Rangers 3-2 on Thursday night in Game 5 of of an Eastern Conference final where the teams have been separated by one goal the past four games. Unlike the previous three, this one didn't need extra time.

Gustav Forsling and Sam Bennett also scored, and Sergei Bobrovsky made 25 saves to help the Panthers — who lost to Vegas last year for the title — win their second straight in the best-of-series series.

Bennett said the Panthers aren't talking about a return trip to the Cup final. They are focused on one game at a time, although, the memory of last season is a positive.

“I think it helps a lot," Bennett said. “Just to know the grind. How hard it is. How much it takes to have success — to make it this far — it takes a lot. We learned a lot last year.”

Chris Kreider and Alexis Lafreniere scored for the Rangers, and Igor Shesterkin made 34 saves in another magnificent effort. The Presidents’ Trophy winners need to win two straight to return to the final for the first time since 2014. Mike Zibanejad had two assists.

The Panthers can end the series Saturday in Florida. If a seventh game is necessary, it will be at Madison Square Garden, where the Panthers have won twice this series.

This is the first time the Rangers have faced elimination in the playoffs this season.

“There is nothing to say,” Rangers captain Jacob Trouba said. “Your back is against the wall. We have to bring our best game to survive another day.”

The go-ahead goal came after the Rangers lost the puck in the Florida end. Eetu Luostarien got the puck, found Lundell at the Rangers' blue line. His shot from the right circle beat Shesterkin.

While it appeared the puck was deflected, many of the Panthers gave veteran Vladimir Tarasenko credit for attempting to tip the puck in front of Shesterkin. They thought it might have affected the goaltender.

“We had chance after chance and just kept grinding," said Lundell, who along with Luostarinen was stopped in close by Shesterkin on shots made between their legs earlier in the period. "We had some great chances. Finally we got the goal.”

Bennett added an empty-net goal with 1:52 left and it proved necessary when Lafreniere scored with 50 seconds to play. The Rangers never got another shot.

“As the emotion increases in this series - the closer you get to the end, every single play, small play counts," said Florida coach Paul Maurice, who team blocked 17 shots and had one giveaway.

Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said the series has been tight.

“We need to capitalize on some of the ones (chances) that we did generate and we weren’t able to do that tonight,” he said. "It was like I said, it was tight. The game was tight. I thought we had looks and I thought we had chances and they didn’t go in. Came down to one goal. So it’s a 2-1 game.”

Kreider and Zibanejad, who were scoreless in the first four games of the series, combined to give New York the lead with a short-handed goal at 2:04 of the second period.

Kreider broke up a Florida play at the blue line, nudged the puck to Zibanejad and then took a return pass entering the offensive zone and beat Bobrovsky with nifty backhand move, evoking a roar that seemed to have Madison Square Garden shaking.

It was Kreider eighth goal of the playoffs and the Rangers’ sixth short-handed, tying the team postseason record set in 1978-79. New York went on to the Stanley Cup Final, losing to Montreal in five games.

Forsling tied it a little more than six minutes later, taking a perfect pass from Bennett and beating Shesterkin with a backhander that the goalie deflected but not enough to keep it out of the net. It was the defenseman's fourth goal and 11th point of the playoffs.

Both teams had great chances in the scoreless first period with Bobrovsky stopping Filip Chytil and Vincent Trocheck in close, and Shesterkin turning aside Kevin Stenlund and getting a little help from a post on Bennett's backhander from point-blank range.

- TOM CANAVAN

REINHART SCORES IN OT, PANTHERS BEAT RANGERS 3-2 OT OF GAME 4 OF EAST FINAL

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 SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — The Florida Panthers couldn't have asked for a better scenario. Sam Reinhart, alone in the slot, on the power play.

Game over. Series tied.

Reinhart — the NHL's power-play goal leader this year — came through with his 65th and most important goal of the season 1:12 into overtime, and the Panthers topped the New York Rangers 3-2 on Tuesday night, evening the Eastern Conference Final at two games apiece.

“If he's open, obviously, we want to look for him,” said Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov, who set Reinhart up for the game-winner.

With good reason. Reinhart has 31 goals on the man advantage this year, connecting on 32% of his power-play shots.

“I saw him wide open there, and I was pretty confident he was putting that one in,” Florida forward Carter Verhaeghe said. "He has an awesome shot and obviously he made no mistake on that one, and it was awesome.”

It was the third straight OT game in the series, and the first one that the Panthers scored in the extra session. And on a night when it took a bounce off a skate and then a baseball swing to give Florida its first two goals of Game 4, the finish was picture-perfect for Florida.

Verhaeghe and Sam Bennett also scored for Florida, which got 21 saves — and an assist — from Sergei Bobrovsky.

Vincent Trocheck and Alexis Lafrenière scored for the Rangers, and Igor Shesterkin stopped 37 shots.

Game 5 is Thursday in New York, where the teams split the opening two matchups in this series. Game 6 will be Saturday in Sunrise, and the Prince of Wales Trophy — awarded to the East champs — will be in attendance that night.

“Overall, not the result we wanted,” Rangers forward Mika Zibanejad said. "It’s the best out of three. We go home and try to take care of Game 5.”

Blake Wheeler, playing his first game for the Rangers since mid-February, was called for hooking Barkov 59 seconds into the extra session. And it didn't take long for the Panthers to cash in, with Barkov setting up Reinhart in front.

Rangers defenseman Adam Fox defended Wheeler, who basically had no chance with Barkov skating in alone on Shesterkin.

“I don’t think it was a bad penalty to take. They have a good power play and they capitalized,” Fox said.

Bennett got Florida on the board midway through the second period, on a second effort. His first shot got past Shesterkin, but not into the net — and Bennett, who followed the shot, managed to get to the puck before anyone else. He knocked it off the back of the goalie's skate and barely across the goal line.

And 3 1/2 minutes later, Florida had the lead on a pinball goal by Verhaeghe.

Matthew Tkachuk centered the puck from the right corner, and it deflected off Rangers defenseman Ryan Lindgren's stick. Airborne, it bounced off Shesterkin, then off Lindgren's upper body — and Verhaeghe, with more of a baseball swing than anything else, batted it out of the air for a 2-1 Florida edge.

"I don’t even know what it hit," Verhaeghe said.

Including playoffs, over the last two seasons, Florida entered Tuesday with an NHL-best record of 81-2-6 in games where it led after 40 minutes.

Lafrenière didn't care. A neat spin move from Fox got him the puck on the left side of the crease and he tapped it home with 16:32 left for his third goal in the last two games.

The rest of regulation was wild. Back and forth, play more often resembling a 3-on-3 regular season overtime than anything else, going end to end — Bobrovsky making some point-blank stops, Shesterkin once again getting peppered just as he was late in Game 3 to no Florida avail.

And for the third straight game, to OT they went.

“That’s a pretty desperate team,” Rangers captain Jacob Trouba said. “We have to find an ability to raise to that level.”

Trocheck opened the scoring with a power-play tally, on a play where he won a faceoff, moved into the high slot, waited for a centering pass from Artemi Panarin and ripped a perfect shot — an inch or two past the right side of Bobrovsky's head, kissing it off the bottom of the crossbar and into the goal.

So, the crossbar giveth on that Rangers power play. It taketh away on the next one, when the game of inches went the Panthers' way.

New York had Florida reeling later in the first period, when Brandon Montour was in the box for cross-checking. Zibanejad was alone on the left side of the crease and shot toward a ton of open net, but the puck hit Bobrovsky's shoulder, ricocheted up to the crossbar — and this time, bounced back into the crease, just off the goal line as the Panthers remained down only 1-0.

“We have a good feeling,” Bobrovsky said. “We’ve got good belief, good trust in each other here. We’ve got great atmosphere. And, yeah, it’s a fun challenge.”