SUNRISE, Fla. — The Rangers stole two points from the Panthers in the teams’ first meeting in November, but Florida swiped them right back on Wednesday.

Competing in their first game in 12 days, against a Panthers squad that was nearly fully healthy for the first time in a while, the Rangers hung in through 40 minutes — and even tested the home team — before Florida buried three goals in the third period to take a 4-3 victory at FLA Live Arena.

It was the second time this season the Rangers surrendered three goals in the third period to the Panthers, except they didn’t get away with it this time.

“We deserved a point probably,” head coach Gerard Gallant said after the loss, which dropped the Rangers to 19-8-4. “And probably the same thing in the last game we played them [at Madison Square Garden], they probably deserved two points or one out of [our] building. So it happens, but I’m happy with the way our team came out to play tonight.”

With a one-goal lead at the start of the final period, the Rangers watched as the Panthers poured six shots on goal in the first six minutes of the frame. It was on the seventh that MacKenzie Weegar found the back of the net for his first goal of the season to knot the game 2-2.

The Rangers then suddenly lost the shoot-first mentality they seemingly had for a majority of the game, stopped pushing the pace and became a bit sloppy with the puck. Plus, they reverted back to their too-many-passes habit.

That’s when Florida forwards Carter Verhaeghe and Anthony Duclair were able to each score a goal in the span of 4:09 to secure the victory, which snapped a three-game losing skid for the Panthers.

With 44.4 seconds left in regulation, Chris Kreider chipped in a goal to lessen the deficit.

“You don’t want it to happen, I mean, it happens,” defenseman Jacob Trouba said of the blown lead. “That’s part of life in the NHL. I don’t think it’s too much to dwell on. That’s a really good team, we played a good game for the most part. Correct some mistakes we made toward the end in the third period there and we’ll be fine.”

Leading the Rangers with a goal and an assist each, Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad returned to the ice on a high note after the holiday recess. Panarin recorded his 10th multipoint game of the season, while Zibanejad has now notched two or more points in three straight contests.

In the second frame, Panarin swiped the puck from Panthers defenseman Radko Gudas and connected with Zibanejad for Zibanejad’s eighth tally of the season and the 2-1 lead at 12:43.

The Rangers didn’t put much stock into the fact that they had, once again, given up three third-period goals to the Panthers. Gallant pointed to the Rangers’ battle level and no-quit attitude as the silver lining.

“The third period didn’t start well,” Gallant said. “That four-on-four, I thought we were a little looser and we just didn’t get our traction after that. The second was the best period by far for us, dominated I thought and played really strong hockey.

“In the third, we just didn’t seem to have the same energy that we did in the second.”