SUNRISE, Fla. — This was a matchup between two of the top three powerhouses in the Eastern Conference, but the Rangers did not rise all the way up to the occasion.

Aside from Jonathan Quick’s goaltending, the usually dependable aspects of the Blueshirts’ game did not deliver in a 4-3 loss to the Panthers on Friday night, in front of a Rangers South sold-out crowd of 19,723 at Amerant Bank Arena. 

The Rangers’ NHL-leading power play only could muster two shots on two opportunities. Their fifth-ranked penalty kill, which hadn’t given up a goal in over two weeks, surrendered a go-ahead score in the second period. And their new-found structure was sliced and diced at times by a pesky Panthers team that lost in the Stanley Cup Finals over six months ago.

The score may have been close, and the visitors certainly improved as the game progressed, but suddenly the five points separating the first-place Rangers and the third-place Panthers in the Eastern Conference standings look a lot slimmer.

“It was a good game,” head coach Peter Laviolette said. “I thought after we figured out their pressure on the forecheck in the first maybe five to eight minutes, the second half of the first period and for the rest of the game, I thought we did a good job pushing things behind them and odd-man rushes, breakaways. Lots of opportunities to score goals. Didn’t happen, but there were lots of chances.”

Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov led his team with three primary assists, while Sam Reinhart chipped in two goals.

Artemi Panarin served as the Rangers’ stars lone representative for a majority of the game with a goal and a team-high six shots, but Mika Zibanejad blasted a shorthanded one-timer with 7:45 left in regulation to extend his point streak to nine games and knot the game at three-all.

Florida never stopped applying pressure, however, which led to Carter Verhaeghe’s game-winner 1:22 after the Rangers’ tying score in the third period when Barclay Goodrow’s stick broke.

“It was tough because we had tied it up, gotten through the [Alexis Lafreniere] penalty and it was tough that we lost our stick there,” Laviolette said. “That’s the way it goes sometimes.”

Quick, who stopped 28 of the 32 shots he faced, did all he could do in a game that became a goalie battle at times with Sergei Bobrovsky, who posted 31 saves on 34 shots.

A passive first period from the Rangers, who fell behind by a goal, was counteracted by some clutch saves from Quick. The 37-year-old netminder turned in a Save of the Year candidate when he fell to the ice to make a save on Nick Cousins before kicking his leg up to deny Eetu Luostarinen on the follow-up shot.

The Rangers woke up and pieced together a much more competitive middle frame after Reinhart doubled Florida’s lead, 2-0, off a feed from behind the net from Barkov.

Ryan Lindgren’s chipped keep-in at the blue line landed right on the stick of Lafreniere, who fed a wide-open Panarin in the opposite faceoff circle to put the Rangers on the board at the 13:23 mark.

Just over a minute later, K’Andre Miller stole the puck in the Rangers’ zone before dishing to Will Cuylle on a 2-on-1 rush. The Rangers rookie buried his seventh goal of the season to tie it up, leaving Cousins toppled over Bobrovsky in his rearview mirror.

When Braden Schneider was hit with a weak interference penalty, however, the Panthers regained the lead on the power play on Reinhart’s second goal of the night.

“I don’t think it’s a bad game,” Zibanejad said. “Maybe wasn’t our best game, but they played some good hockey, too. They’re a good hockey team. They got the win this time. We got a chance to win tomorrow [against the Lightning].”