Game 2 of the 2024 Eastern Conference Finals featured a ton of intrigue as the black rubber puck met the frozen floor surface at the “World’s Most Famous Arena” on Friday night. The Florida Panthers strolled into Madison Square Garden earlier in the week to shut out the New York Rangers, 3-0. Rangers head coach Peter Laviolette inserted Transformer-like wrecking-ball / hockey-forward, Matt Rempe, back into the lineup for Game 2 to provide a 6-foot-7-sized physicality boost to the Rangers fourth lineup.
It would be Rempe’s teammate sending New Yorkers flooding onto the sidewalks of 8th Avenue with “Let’s Go Rangers” ringing louder than the horns from those infamous yellow cabbies. Game 2 Goalie Riddle Solved By Rangers In OT Barclay Goodrow scored 14 minutes into a fiercely contested extra session of hockey at The Garden. On a play that was reviewed for a potential high stick, the veteran forward knocked the puck out of the air in the neutral zone, give-and-go pass to-and-from Trocheck before firing a shot that went off the glove of Bobrovsky only to be stopped by the twine between the red pipes.
Rangers coach Peter Laviolette was thrilled to see a hard worker get some kudos in the Game 2 OT spotlight: “When you see someone who does so many other things to help a team be successful, I’m really happy for a guy like that to make a huge impact in the game tonight,” the Rangers coach said. With the clutch overtime goal, the New York Rangers can breathe a slight.