SUNRISE, Fla. — The Rangers wanted this one. They wanted it badly.

Jonathan Quick announced his retirement earlier in the day and the team pushed their hardest to give the veteran netminder a send-off that was worthy of a player who is projected to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer.

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The Blueshirts all donned Quick’s No. 32 jersey during warmups. They overcame a two-goal deficit. Tied in the third period, the visitors fought like a playoff berth was on the line.

A heavily depleted Panthers team, however, notched the game-winner with 1:50 left in regulation as Cole Reinhardt blasted his second goal of the game past Quick for a 3-2 win.

“It’s unfortunate some of the chances that we had, we couldn’t get that goal and let that last game be a win for him,” Mika Zibanejad said. “It was definitely the motivation that was in the locker room, for us to make sure that he gets a good finish like that. It stinks.”

The Rangers have defended the rush relatively well this season, but they fell behind early after the Panthers converted on a couple of odd-man chances.

An effective breakout by Florida led to Reinhardt burying a redirected rebound from Quick. Mackie Samoskevich then blocked a Braden Schneider shot, caught up to the puck and roofed it on a contested breakaway for the 2-0 Panthers lead.

There was an apparent effort from the Rangers to defend hard in front of Quick.

They sacrificed their bodies for the play, throwing themselves in front of the puck and playing aggressively in the defensive zone.

“Team played great,” Quick said. “I wish I had a couple more saves for them. Unfortunately how it finished up. They deserved to win. I didn’t have as many as I liked to tonight, but it was still special. To see the way these guys played. Just, it’s an honor to play my last game with this group here.”

First- and second-period goals from Matthew Robertson and Gabe Perreault, respectively, gave the Rangers a chance in the final 20 minutes. They outshot the Panthers 13-4, generating lengthy shifts in the offensive zone and seven high-danger chances, per Natural Stat Trick.

Still, the Rangers weren’t able to get the go-ahead goal they desperately wanted for Quick.

“He’s as good a teammate as you can find,” Vincent Trocheck said. “I’ve been thinking about it for a little bit now, after finding out that this was going to be his last year. Like things that I could say. There’s an infinite amount of positive things you can say about him. When you have a career as long as his, you come across hundreds of different teammates. Before being lucky enough to play with him a few years ago, you talk to guys that he plays with or played with and every single one of them says the same thing. He’s the best teammate. Unbelievable guy. Always trying to set things up to bring the guys together.

“He is the definition of a glue guy. He is a Hall of Famer. Three Cups. He was the starter in LA for years and he comes here and he’s the backup to [Igor Shesterkin] and it doesn’t change a thing. He’s still the greatest guy.”