Although they got off to a slow start, the Rangers eventually took control of the pace of their Tuesday night matchup against the Florida Panthers following a timely goal by none other than Tanner Glass. It helped the Rangers gain some momentum that would largely remain on their side of the ice until the Panthers began a serious pushback following their first goal of the game. Still, outstanding goaltending yet again was the difference, with Hank keeping the Rangers in it at times and helping the team ultimately seal the deal.

RANGERS 1 PANTHERS 0

Chris Kreider doing what he does best, deflecting goals in from in front of the net. After a failed attempt by Florida at clearing the zone, Mats Zuccarello works the puck up along the right boards to Steve Kampfer at the point. He lets a low one fly towards the net, which Kreider tips in to get the Rangers on the board.

RANGERS 2 PANTHERS 0

The goal that broke twitter. This one starts in the Rangers own end with JT Miller carrying the puck out of the zone. He continues on an outstanding individual effort and goes all into the Florida zone and curls around the net with the puck on his back hand. He then puts it to Oscar Lindberg at the top of the left circle, who flips a backhand shot on net. Tanner Glass finds himself in the right place at the right time to collect the rebound, and the Rangers have now grabbed the reins of this game and set themselves up to take things over. While Glass ended up getting the goal, this one was due in large part to JT Miller’s incredible effort.

RANGERS 3 PANTHERS 0

This one is just an excellently executed breakout from Brady Skjei and Kevin Hayes, pure and simple. Skjei hits Hayes with the stretch pass as he’s entering the zone with a step on his man, and then goes straight to the net. A quick move and Hayes slots it home, putting the Rangers up 3-0 and getting us all half off pizza at Papa John’s.

RANGERS 3 PANTHERS 1

A failed attempt at clearing the zone winds up causing a bit of a scramble low in the zone, leaving the puck at several players’ feet, with only Thomas Vanek being able to corral the puck. I realize we’re all on the Tanner Glass hype train now because of his goal, but I would like to note that he attempts, and fails, to take the puck away from Vanek right before he rips the shot.

RANGERS 4 PANTHERS 1

Glass giveth just as Glass taketh of course, so he starts the play that gets the next goal off working the puck from center ice to Oscar Lindberg as he’s entering the zone. Lindberg then shows great patience to curl back and look for the open man, eventually finding Holden at the top of the zone. Holden gets whacked a little bit as he lets it fly, but no matter as Reimer leaves his short side nice and open for Holden to put the puck into.

RANGERS 4 PANTHERS 2

 Trochek works the puck down to Ekblad on the powerplay, who then walks in with time and space on Henrik Lundqvist and slips the puck in just shy of the post. An unfortunate goal that in the end meant very little.

RANGERS 5 PANTHERS 2

Nash makes an excellent defensive play on Aaron Ekblad and works it to Pavel Buchnevich, who caps off this game with an empty netter.

While shelling in the third period certainly isn’t something I’d like the team to get in the habit of as we get through March and April, I didn’t particularly mind the way the Rangers played tonight. It seemed they had solid fundamentals going for them – connecting on passes, solid breakouts, and generally controlling the ebb and flow of the game, third period notwithstanding (that’s a big notwithstanding, I know).

Also, since I’ve been joking about him all over this goal breakdown I’ll say this: I wouldn’t complain if Tanner Glass played this way every night. That still doesn’t mean I think he should be guaranteed a roster spot no matter what as is likely to be the case, but it definitely wouldn’t be a terrible thing to see him play the way he did against the Panthers. A solid road trip down to Florida these past two nights (although the 7:30 starts are just that much more annoying), hopefully they can carry the momentum with them to Carolina.

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