2024 NHL Playoffs: Winners and losers from Thursday’s game action, including Sergei Bobrovsky

He gets overshadowed by the brilliance of his counterpart, Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin, but Sergei Bobrovsky continues to be really good for the Panthers in these playoffs and here in the Eastern Conference Final. Borovsky stopped 25 of 27 shots in the Game 5 win and has allowed two goals or fewer in four of the five games in this series. When the Rangers were at their best in the first period, Bobrovsky stopped all 11 shots he faced. Then after allowing Chris Kreider’s breakaway goal early in the second, the two-time Vezina Trophy winner shut the door, giving up only a goal in the final minute when Florida was up by two.

Artemi Panarin, a 49-goal scorer in the regular season, came up empty again for the Rangers in Game 5. Florida has given him no room to operate and Panarin has either been unable or unwilling to fight through the tight checking to create open space for himself. He had four shots on goal Thursday, his most in the series, but remains without a goal and has only three assists, two in Game 4. He has not scored in the postseason since his Game 3 overtime winner against the Carolina Hurricanes in Round 2.

Panthers coach Paul Maurice says Sam Bennett is fully healthy after dealing with an injury earlier in the playoffs. And it showed again Thursday. Bennett was a pit bull on the forecheck and defending in his own zone, playing a hard 18 minutes. He led the Panthers with a goal an an assist, and almost had a second goal, but hisfirst-period backhand shot his the post. The center made a simply brilliant pass to set up Gustav Forsling’s tying goal in the second and then scored an important empty-net goal late in the third.

With the Rangers up 1-0 early in the second period and already on the power play, they appeared headed to a two-man advantage when Niko Mikkola ran over Igor Shesterkin. However, Erik Gustafsson offset that penalty with a roughing minor of his own and a huge opportunity for New York to pull away in Game 5 was wasted. The Rangers defenseman also struggled again with the Panthers’ pressure and had a game-high four turnovers in 20:34 of ice time.

There’s a reason Anton Lundell is being called “Baby Barkov” in South Florida. The 22-year-old, a two-way center and a Fin like captain Sasha Barkov, not only played his typical stout shutdown game, but he scored off the rush midway through the period to snap a 1-1 tie, wiring a shot under Igor Shesterkin’s arm. Earlier in the period, in tight against Shesterkin, Lundell put a shot between his legs that nearly went in. We’re watching a star in the making during these playoffs.

This has nothing to with what Matt Rempe did, or did not do, in Game 5 for the Rangers. It’s the fact that popular 6-foot-8 wrecking ball never was given an opportunity by coach Peter Laviolette. Rempe, who played a terrific 10+ minutes in a Game 3 win, has seen his ice time decrease the next two games. The rookie played only four shifts totaling 2:43 on Thursday and had zero impact on the game.

After being held pointless in the first four games of this series, Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad each found the score sheet in Game 5. Kreider scored a gorgeous shorthanded breakaway goal to open the scoring in the second period, assisted on Alexis Lafreniere’s late score and had four shots on goal and four hits. Zibanejad assisted on each New York goal, won 60 percent of his face offs and played more than 24 minutes.

The ice at Madison Square Garden was not good again Thursday after being a mess and topic of conversation following the first two games of this series. The ESPN announcers noted how the temperature was much colder inside the World’s Most Famous Arena for Game 5, but it didn’t help enough. The puck bounced as if it were a basketball in a New York Knicks game, making it tough on each team to complete passes or to even settle the disc in an attempt to make plays.

After missing out on the Panthers run to the Stanley Cup Final last spring because of a broken foot, Aaron Ekblad has been a quietly-effective defender during this postseason. Ekblad notched his first point of this series, an assist, and played a robust physical game Thursday, credited with five hits and five blocked shots in 24:24 of ice time.

After clicking at 33.3 percent on the power play to begin this series, the Panthers ran into a stone wall with the Rangers penalty kill Thursday. Not only were the Panthers 0-for-3, but they could barely enter the offensive zone much less set up for any good looks against Igor Shesterkin. This after scoring two power-play goals in each of the past two games, including Sam Reinhart’s game-winner during overtime in Game 4. To top it off, they allowed Chris Kreider’s shorthanded goal to fall behind 1-0 early in the second period.