NEW YORK CITY — The Florida Panthers’ Recreation 1 win over the New York Rangers could have set the tone for the Jap Convention last. However Matthew Tkachuk unquestionably established it in Florida’s 3-0 victory on Wednesday night time.
Tkachuk opened the scoring with a first-period aim after delivering two booming hits on the Rangers’ Vincent Trocheck.
“He is a frontrunner. A real chief of this staff,” Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov stated. “At present was an excellent instance of that: He set the tone bodily, made some performs and did no matter he does at his greatest. And we comply with his lead.”
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Tkachuk completed with a aim and an help on Sam Bennett’s empty-netter that iced the win, giving Florida a 1-0 sequence lead forward of Friday night time’s Recreation 2 at Madison Sq. Backyard.
The Panthers ahead has 16 factors in 12 video games, with 5 objectives and 11 assists.
Tkachuk hasn’t had the identical star moments within the Panthers’ sequence wins towards the Tampa Bay Lightning and Boston Bruins as he did in Florida’s run to the Stanley Cup Ultimate final season. His coach, Paul Maurice, stated that “I’d by no means guess towards him developing with some heroics” within the convention last.
“The gamers have sort of come to anticipate it. So it isn’t essentially an enormous enhance in that, ‘Oh my god, Matthew scored a aim.’ However for him, that simply will get him cooking,” Maurice stated.
The Panthers coach stated that Tkachuk’s best contribution to the win was reorienting the staff to face the Rangers. Recreation 1 was a tightly performed, bodily contest that remained 1-0 till 16:12 of the third interval. Florida grinded out a win.
“What he did tonight is he righted our staff again to the easy components of our sport,” Maurice stated. “These are the most effective gamers on this planet they usually’re able to doing extra. However typically much less is simply method higher, and it is also fairly a bit smarter. And I believed he led in that division.”
The Panthers acquired on the scoreboard first at 16:26 of the primary interval. Tkachuk took a drop cross from defenseman Gustav Forsling, used a display screen from Rangers defenseman Adam Fox and beat goalie Igor Shesterkin for the 1-0 lead.
“It was good as a result of it was a shot off the push, as an alternative of attempting to attend to search out extra,” Maurice stated.
Tkachuk stated he would not really feel any additional duty to be an offensive pressure within the convention last.
“I do not put any strain on myself to attain or produce offense. It is not about myself right here. There is a method greater aim forward. Guys on our staff that did not rating tonight had been a few of our greatest gamers,” he stated. “There’s a lot buy-in from everyone that no one cares who’s producing, who’s doing no matter, who’s doing the hitting. I imply, on the finish of the day, we’re right here for wins. That is it.”
The Panthers took Recreation 1 by killing two Rangers energy performs, getting a powerful 23-save efficiency from Sergei Bobrovsky and controlling play at even power for lengthy stretches. Within the second interval, the Rangers went 14:25 between photographs on aim.
“I believed we had alternatives that we did not money in on actually. A few of that we have to offer to them. A few of it we acquired to take duty with our execution and getting pucks to areas that we have to get to,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette stated.
It is the primary time the Rangers have trailed in a sequence within the 2024 playoffs, having gone 8-2 earlier than dealing with the Panthers.
“It is onto the subsequent sport. It is a lengthy, lengthy, lengthy battle,” defenseman Jacob Trouba stated. “I believe all through the course of a sequence, you are most likely going to be down in some unspecified time in the future all through the playoffs. Anytime you lose a sport, you need to reply within the subsequent one.”
Tkachuk believes the Panthers have room for enchancment, too.
“All in all pleased with the way it went, however there are quite a lot of issues that we are able to get higher at,” Tkachuk stated. “However I by no means complain after a win, particularly in playoffs. So on to Recreation 2.”
