SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — The Eastern Conference Finals have been a goaltender duel, and nobody should have expected otherwise.
Seems fitting that the Florida Panthers and New York Rangers are knotted at one game apiece heading into Game 3 on Sunday afternoon, given that a pair of Russian netminders and past Vezina Trophy winners as the league’s top goalie — Sergei Bobrovsky for the Panthers, Igor Shesterkin for the Rangers — have basically matched each other save-for-save, stat-for-stat.
Bobrovsky has allowed the Rangers to score two goals. Shesterkin has allowed the Panthers to score two goals, not counting an own goal deflected in by a teammate and an empty-netter that New York yielded in Game 1. And the similarities hardly end there.
“It’s definitely fun,” Bobrovsky said.
Fun is one way to describe it. Hair-raising, gut-churning, and nail-biting would also apply.
The Rangers evened the series on Friday with a 2-1 overtime win at Madison Square Garden, Barclay Goodrow the hero 14:01 into the extra session by beating Bobrovsky and giving New York — which finished with the NHL’s best regular season record — a needed split of the first two games before heading on the road for Games 3 and 4.
There’s been almost no breathing room over the first two games: Through 134 minutes and 1 second of hockey so far in the East finals, 130:13 of it has come with the margin on the scoreboard being one goal or less. The goalies have just been that hard to beat.
“He’s been terrific, he’s been terrific this year and he’s certainly been terrific in the playoffs,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said of Shesterkin. “I thought there was good goaltending at both ends. … Both of these guys are good goaltenders.”
Take away the own goal from Game 1 — Florida’s Carter Verhaeghe got credited with a score that made it 2-0 late in the third when Alexis Lafrenière tipped the puck past Shesterkin — and the goaltender numbers are almost perfectly matched. Bobrovsky has stopped 52 of 54 shots he’s seen, a .963 save percentage. Shesterkin has stopped 50 of the 52 Florida shots that have gotten to him, a .962 mark.
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