![\"Rangers](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/new-york-rangers-goaltender-igor-124675800.jpg\")
Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin (31)makes a save on a shot by the Florida Panthers defenseman Dmitry Kulikov (7) on March 29, 2026. JASON SZENES FOR THE NEW YORK POST<\/p>\nThe Rangers and Panthers battled it out in the 2024 Eastern Conference finals for the right to compete for the Stanley Cup.<\/p>\n
Less than two years later, the teams squared off in a meaningless game that resulted in a 3-1 Rangers win Sunday afternoon at Madison Square Garden. Stacked at the very bottom of the conference, the Rangers and Panthers are in much different places than they were just under 22 months ago.<\/p>\n
The difference? Florida actually has something to show for it: two Stanley Cup rings.<\/p>\n
In this Sunday matinee, however, the Rangers received stellar goaltending from Igor Shesterkin (27 saves) and broke through on another encouraging game from rookie Adam Sykora.<\/p>\n
They took advantage of a hampered Florida team that is projected to miss the playoffs for the first time since 2018-19.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat team over there, they\u2019re not going to give you an inch no matter who\u2019s in their lineup,\u201d said Adam Fox, who assisted on Sykora\u2019s first-period goal and scored one of his own into an empty net from the length of the ice to seal the win. \u201cThey\u2019re a proud team. [Sykora has] been great. He\u2019s brought a lot of energy. And that\u2019s part of his game too. He\u2019ll get in the mix and bring some jam. So, you know, it\u2019s definitely been some help for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin (31)makes a save on a shot by the Florida Panthers defenseman Dmitry Kulikov (7) on March 29, 2026. JASON SZENES FOR THE NEW YORK POST<\/p>\n
Sykora scored his second goal in as many games and got into the \u201cfirst ever fight in my life.\u201d Getting a stick on Adam Fox\u2019s shot just over five minutes into the third period, the 21-year-old opened the scoring and continued his impactful play since making his debut three games ago.<\/p>\n
The Rangers then doubled their lead on Conor Sheary\u2019s short-handed goal before Fox potted one into an empty net to seal the victory.<\/p>\n
Since that conference finals meeting, the Rangers have gone 3-2-0 against the Panthers in the regular season, including a dominant 5-1 win in the Winter Classic in Miami earlier this season.<\/p>\n
They have one game remaining against them this season in Sunrise, Fla., on April 13, which is the second-to-last game of the season.<\/p>\n
Of the 20 Rangers who dressed for Game 6 of the ECF on June 1, 2024, only eight dressed Sunday.<\/p>\n
Shesterkin, Mika Zibanejad, Vincent Trocheck, Adam Fox, Alexis Lafreni\u00e8re, Braden Schneider, Jonny Brodzinski and Will Cuylle are the only ones who played in that series and suited up for this game.<\/p>\n
Backup goalie Jonathan Quick was also on the bench for Game 6, but he has been sidelined with an upper-body injury the last six contests.<\/p>\n
![\"Rangers](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/new-york-rangers-left-wing-124673048.jpg\")
Rangers wing Adam Sykora during the team\u2019s win over the Panthers on March 29, 2026. JASON SZENES FOR THE NEW YORK POST<\/p>\n
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While the Panthers had seven players \u2014 Sergei Bobrovsky, Aaron Ekblad, Matthew Tkachuk, Carter Verhaeghe, Dmitry Kulikov, Eetu Luostarinen and Gustav Forsling \u2014 in Sunday\u2019s game from the lineup that ended the season in 2024, the visitors had six others not playing due to injury.<\/p>\n
That included Sam Bennett, Aleksander Barkov, Sam Reinhart, Anton Lundell, Evan Rodrigues and one-time Ranger Niko Mikkola.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought we got better as the game went on, in particular the second half of the game,\u201d head coach Mike Sullivan said. \u201cThe second half of the second period, we started to, I think, play with the intensity that we needed to play with and the intentions that we needed to play with.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I mean by that is, when you play against a team like Florida that plays really a no-nonsense, straight-ahead game, they play straight ahead, they skate, they hit, they close on you, they\u2019re one of the better teams in the league that takes time and space in all three zones. They have big, mobile defensemen with long reaches and they don\u2019t give you a lot of time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you make soft plays on the entries or the exits, they tend to knock things down. It makes for a hard game. I thought as the game went on, we got better at just making harder plays, playing more straight ahead, playing behind them when we had to, and then getting after them as opposed to them getting after us a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Rangers and Panthers battled it out in the 2024 Eastern Conference finals for the right to compete…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":691207,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[1323,149242,1302,293,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-691206","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-florida-panthers","9":"tag-igor-shesterkin","10":"tag-new-york-rangers","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116315145353178965","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=691206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/691207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=691206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=691206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=691206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}