Trailing 5-3 with five minutes left of regulation, the New York Rangers were able to clinch a Stadium Series win due to Artemi Panarin’s goal just 10 seconds into overtime. The Rangers remain on their seven-game win streak.
At the start of the first period, the Rangers took an early lead when defenseman Erik Gustafsson took a slap shot just a minute and 30 seconds into the first, assisted by right-wing Kaapo Kakko.
Introduced in the first period, Rangers Rookie Matt Rempe made history by becoming the first player to make his NHL debut in a regular-season outdoor game. Just 1:29 into the first, Rempe made a lasting impression on the Islanders when he dropped his gloves and fought against Islanders winger Matt Martin.
“Rempe came in here and provided exactly what we wanted him to do,” Rangers head coach Peter Laviolette told media outlets.
Minutes later into the first period, the Islanders scored three goals in three minutes, while two of those goals were only 16 seconds apart by Bo Horvat and Mathew Barzal.
With just one minute into the second period, the Rangers were down 4-1 from a goal by Islanders left wing Anders Lee. The Rangers came back just 5:36 into the second, capitalizing on a power play. Vincent Trocheck executed a tip-in, assisted by Panarin. Two minutes left of the second, marking his second goal of the evening, Trocheck narrowed the Rangers’ deficit by just one goal with a wrist shot, ending the period 4-3.
Entering the last period of regulation, Islanders defenseman Alexander Romanov makes the score 5-3 just 1:53 into the third period.
“We took a look at ourselves and see what we have to do,” Rangers center Mika Zibanejad told media outlets later that evening. “In situations when we’re down, we know what we have to do and we’ve been pretty good at getting back on track and getting big goals, creating some sort of momentum to swing the game back our way.”
With four minutes left of regulation, the Rangers came back and tied the game by capitalizing on two power plays. In the sixteenth minute, Chris Kreider was able to deflect it in after it was thrown in from up high by Panarin. Tying up the game with 1:35 left of regulation, Zibanejad was found in the perfect spot by defenseman Adam Fox. The puck went just past the right arm of Islanders goalkeeper Ilya Sorokin, ending regulation 5-5.
The Rangers were able to celebrate this amazing comeback win just ten seconds into overtime after Panarin clinched an unassisted goal. Panarin’s goal was under review by the referees after the goal cage was taken off its pegs. The goal was confirmed as a good goal after a video review, resulting in a huge 5-4 comeback win.
“I don’t remember that goal because I got flooded with a wave of emotions,” Panarin said to media outlets after the game. “But I’m 80 percent sure that it was a goal.”