Alex Wennberg scores rare goal in overtime to give Rangers thrilling Game 3 win over Panthers

SUNRISE, Fla. — Nothing has come easily against the Panthers, but the Rangers have proven they can work that much harder.

Every shift is strenuous and every puck battle seems to hurt for the Rangers in this Eastern Conference Final series, and yet, it was the visitors who prevailed in a pivotal Game 3 — despite fumbling a two-goal lead in the third period — when Alex Wennberg deflected a shot from Ryan Lindgren in overtime to take a 5-4 win and a 2-1 series lead Sunday evening.

“You see the puck go in and it’s just this burst of energy,” said Wennberg, who had the patches of fans clad in blue leaping out of their seats as he scored just his second goal since pulling on a Blueshirts jersey on March 9. “This burst of all kinds of joy.”

There’s something to be said for the way a game feels in comparison to the way it actually goes.

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With the way this Panthers team has competed through the first three games of this series, most contests may feel in their favor, but there’s also something to be said about the Rangers’ composure and how it combats that fact.

The Rangers were on the wrong side of this game in nearly every statistical category, getting out-attempted 108-44 and outshot 37-23 through 65:35 of arduous play.

Their power play, now on an 0-for-8 skid in the series, was shut down once again.

And the way they came undone in the final five minutes of regulation, the Rangers looked like they had no business winning the game.

When it comes to team mentality, however, the Rangers’ is one of their strongest — if not the strongest — weapon they have. Not much rattles this group, and that’s certainly played a role in how the Rangers have now gone 4-0 in overtime games this postseason.

“Finding ways to win is huge in the playoffs,” said Vincent Trocheck, who earned primary assists on the first of Alexis Lafreniere’s two goals and Barclay Goodrow’s shorthanded score. “It doesn’t really matter whether it’s overtime, regulation, up two late, down two late, it’s all the same — you’re just trying to work for wins.”

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Despite the fact the Rangers were up 4-2 at the start of the third period, it never felt like the Panthers were out of it — and they weren’t.

Florida went on to put on a clinic on both sides of the puck, first making it a 4-3 game on a goal from captain Aleksander Barkov just over five minutes into the final frame before Gustav Forsling found a clear lane and whipped it far side over the glove of Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin to tie it up at four-all with 13:02 left in regulation.

There was plenty of time and plenty of opportunities for the Panthers to end it then — especially when the Rangers got hemmed in their own zone and had to ice the puck five times in the final two minutes to reach overtime.

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But Shesterkin, who finished with 33 saves, made 12 stops in the final 20 minutes to keep his team in it.

Wennberg was the OT hero this time around, but Lafreniere and Goodrow carried the Rangers’ offense in regulation.

Lafreniere finessed a highlight-reel play for his second goal of the game at the 15:23 mark of the middle frame, when the Rangers forward skated down the left boards and right at Dmitry Kulikov before toe-dragging around the Panthers’ defenseman and backhanding the puck past Florida netminder Sergei Bobrovsky for the 3-2 lead.

It was Lafreniere’s second two-goal effort this postseason as the 22-year-old continues to morph into the No. 1 pick everyone thought he would be.

Goodrow not only gave the Rangers a 2-1 lead 25 seconds after Lafreniere tied it up in the first period, but the utility forward recorded the team’s fifth shorthanded goal of the playoffs for the 4-2 edge at the end of the middle frame.

On a Panthers’ four-minute power play, stemming from back-to-back penalties from Rangers captain Jacob Trouba, Goodrow one-timed a feed from Trocheck with 1:44 left in the second period.

“He’s scoring a little bit more now, but he’s been doing it all year,” Trocheck said of Goodrow, who has four goals in the last four games and five this postseason. “The little things are something you can rely on him [for] every single night, you know what you’re going to get.”

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