SUNRISE, Fla. — 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.