Rangers Blow Out Panthers

The Florida Panthers played the final game of their three-game road trip at the newly renovated Madison Square Garden and lost to the New York Rangers 6-1 on Sunday night. Both teams had played their previous game this past weekend in Buffalo. The blueshirts scored on their second power play of the game at 11:40 of the first period. Ed Jovanovski tried to clear the puck out of the Panthers zone, however Ryan Callahan stopped it at the right point and found Brad Richards streaking through the left circle. He waited for Jose Theodore to commit then fired a high shot over the right shoulder of the goalie. New York put in their second power-play goal at 17:27 as Artem Anisimov followed up with a crease shot from the right side after Erik Christensen hit the right post with the initial left-circle shot. Erik Gudbranson put in his first NHL goal from the right point with a slap shot at 18:07. Stephen Weiss and Kris Versteeg scrambled in the left circle to get the puck to the rookie for his first tally and cut the lead to 2-1. The Rangers extended their lead with four second-period goals. At 5:45 Derek Stepan put in an unassisted goal. He stopped the puck in the defensive zone, rumbled down the right side, went by two defenders and wristed a right-wing shot into the top of the cage. New York increased their lead to 4-1 when Steve Eminger burned his former team with a top right circle shot at 10:43. Marian Gaborik added a backhand goal on a rebound shot from the low slot at 16:53 followed by another goal by Stepan in the slot after a Michael Del Zotto shot from the left circle at 17:48. Florida returns home for four straight games at the Bank Atlantic Center beginning with the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday.