SUNRISE, Fla. — Jaroslav Halak turned in his second consecutive impressive performance in nets albeit 15 days apart.
For the 37-year-old who had opened 1-6-1 in his first eight starts, won his second straight while turning aside 32 of 35 shots after being a difference-maker in the Rangers’ double-empty-net-abetted 6-3 victory in Philadelphia on Dec. 17.
Halak was particularly important throughout the second period and early in the third when the Panthers made a few runs at the Rangers and crashed the net repeatedly.
Igor Shesterkin had played the last five straight for the Blueshirts, who play at home Tuesday against Carolina before contests in Montreal on Thursday and New Jersey on Saturday afternoon.
“He’s on our team. He’s a big part of our group,” head coach Gerard Gallant said when asked why he gave Halak the start. “He’s been really good.”
Rangers goaltender Jaroslav Halak (41) and center Mika Zibanejad (93) hug after a win over the Panthers on Sunday. AP
Jonny Brodzinski was left without a uniform Sunday, the fourth-line center serving as the healthy scratch to accommodate Alexis Lafreniere’s return to the lineup after his one game in street clothes in Tampa on Thursday.
Brodzinski had played in 11 straight after sitting out the Dec. 3 match at the Garden against the Blackhawks on the day he was recalled from the AHL Wolf Pack. The 29-year-old had recorded two points (1-1) with plus-three rating at five-on-five (on for five goals for and two against) while getting an average ice time of 9:41 per.
No. 76 is one of two Rangers centers with a winning record at the dots; Brodzinski’s 53.3 percent (40 wins, 35 losses) ranks second to Vincent Trocheck’s 56.3 percent.
Libor Hajek sat as a healthy scratch on defense for the eighth straight match.
The Rangers entered the game 0-for-8 on the power play in their last two games and 1-for-17 over their last four contests.
The 16-17-6 Panthers entered the match having lost one fewer game in regulation under head coach Paul Maurice than they dropped all last year in winning the Presidents’ Trophy as the NHL’s best regular-season team at 58-18-6 under the combination of Joel Quenneville (7-0) and Andrew Brunette behind the bench.
Brunette, dismissed after Florida’s second-round sweep by Tampa Bay, is working as the Devils’ associate coach to head man Lindy Ruff.
The Panthers started the day eight points out of a playoff spot while needing to pass four teams — Buffalo, Detroit, the Rangers and Islanders — in order to secure a wild-card berth.
Since the end of World War II, there have been only five instances in which a team missed the playoffs one year after having finished with the NHL’s best regular-season record.
The Bruins, who won the Presidents’ Trophy in 2013-14 but missed the playoffs the following season, remian the most recent club to achieve that dubious distinction.
