NHL

Rangers’ Artemi Panarin delivered the biggest goal yet of his brilliant season

Highlights from the Rangers’  3-2 Game 3 overtime road win over the Hurricanes on Thursday night:

1. Artemi Panarin

The Rangers’ leading scorer this season won the game with a goal 1:47 into overtime.

For a guy who scored 49 goals and had 120 points during the regular season, this was his biggest goal of the season.

Artemi Panarin celebrates after scoring the game-winning goal in the Rangers' Game 3 win over the Hurricanes on May 9, 2024.
Artemi Panarin celebrates after scoring the game-winning overtime goal in the Rangers’ 3-2 Game 3 win
over the Hurricanes. Jason Szenes / New York Post

2. Alexis Lafreniere

The winger scored at 6:25 of the third period to give the Rangers a 2-1 lead. He took a marvelous feed from Panarin and beat Carolina goalie Pyotr Kochetkov for his third goal in the past two games.

3. Chris Kreider

The Rangers’ all-time leading playoff scorer scored a short-handed goal at 8:30 of the second period to tie the game at 1-1 and take the air out of the Hurricanes, who’d been dominating the game to that point.

Key moment:

Artemi Panarin’s overtime game-winner.

Panarin scored with a redirection of Vincent Trocheck’s pass from the right faceoff circle.

Quote of the day

“Oftentimes when that happens late in the game it can deflate you, but I really liked the way we moved through that game. From the first period on, I thought we got better every minute of the game.’’

— Rangers coach Peter Laviolette on the Canes tying the game in the final seconds to send it to overtime.