Sergei Bobrovsky made 24 saves for his 400th career regular-season victory as the visiting Florida Panthers beat the New York Rangers 3-1 on Thursday night in the first meeting between the teams since last spring’s Eastern Conference finals.
Bobrovsky joined Minnesota’s Marc Andre-Fleury as the second active goaltender to reach the milestone. The two-time Vezina Trophy winner also became the 14th in NHL history to notch 400 wins.
In his 707th career appearance, Bobrovsky became the fastest to reach the milestone, eclipsing Henrik Lundqvist’s 727 games. The 36-year-old also joined Ed Belfour, Curtis Joseph and Tony Esposito as the fourth undrafted goalie to reach the milestone, doing so a little over 14 years after his NHL debut with the Philadelphia Flyers.
Bobrovsky stopped Jonny Brodzinski on a breakaway with about 14 minutes left in the first and made consecutive stops on Chris Kreider during a New York power play with 4:48 left in the first. Bobrovsky also made a right pad stop on Artemi Panarin’s point-blank try with about 11 minutes left in the third.
After being pulled in Florida’s 5-1 home loss to the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday, Bobrovsky was given a two-goal lead in the first 2:42 of the game on goals by Anton Lundell and Carter Verhaeghe. Sam Bennett scored in the second period for the Panthers.
The Rangers, who lost to Florida in six games in last season’s East final, were handed their first regulation loss after going 5-0-1 and scoring 31 goals in their first six contests.
Alexis Lafreniere scored in the first period for New York, which scored at least four goals in each of its first six games. Igor Shesterkin made 26 saves for the Rangers.
Lundell opened the scoring 44 seconds into the contest by burying an easy tap-in off from the right side of the crease after getting a cross-ice feed from Sam Reinhart.
Following a turnover by New York rookie defenseman Victor Mancini, Gustav Forsling connected with Verhaeghe, whose shot from the right circle sailed by New York defenseman Jacob Trouba and over Shesterkin’s left arm.
The Rangers halved the deficit 4:44 into the first when Lafreniere took a pass from Adam Fox along the boards and chipped in a backhander in front of Bobrovsky.
Florida opened a 3-1 lead when Bennett scored on a deflection of a shot from defenseman Niko Mikkola that grazed New York’s Mika Zibanejad 6:59 into the period.
