Rangers happy to see Barclay Goodrow have his moment after OT winner in Game 2

The Rangers needed Game 2 on Friday night. They knew they couldn’t go on the road against the Florida Panthers down 0-2 so they did everything they could to prevent it.

They changed up their lines, put a focus on the forecheck and played with a lot more physicality than they did when they were shut out in a dominating 3-0 win for the Panthers in Game 1.

But in a tight overtime game, the puck finally bounced the Rangers way as Barclay Goodrow sniped the game-winner to even the series at 1-1 and send The Garden crowd home happy.

“Whenever you can do something to help the team,” Goodrow said after the game. “We played a good game tonight and it was nice to be rewarded with the win.”

Off the faceoff, Goodrow stopped the puck in the neutral zone before passing it to Vincent Trocheck, who returned it for the center to snipe it over the right shoulder of Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky.

When asked to describe his feelings when he made the goal, Goodrow said he couldn’t remember how the whole sequence went down, but gave credit to Trocheck and Will Cuylle for driving with him towards the net to open a lane.

“When you get a player that can do anything and a coach can rely on that person, that’s a pretty useful tool,” coach Peter Laviolette said of Goodrow. “Takes faceoffs, plays all forward positions. You can match him up against top lines. Brings physicality, leadership, great teammate. When you get a player like that, you appreciate it as a coach of all the things he brings to the table.

“To see him score a goal tonight is awesome because his role doesn’t always consist of that. It’s not always on the offensive zone, not on the power play, but when he does so many other things that makes a team successful, you’re really happy for a guy like that when he can make an impact like that on a game, offensively.”

Laviolette explained that with Jimmy Vesey exiting with an upper-body injury, the lines became tighter, especially in overtime. The first-year Ranger coach slipped Goodrow in the middle and he was rewarded with the game-winner.

“Big faceoff, comes across the blue line and rips it. It was a really nice shot,” Laviolette said.

In 80 games in the regular season, Goodrow had just four goals. In 12 games in this year’s playoffs, the 31-year-old has four, two being game-winners. Goodrow was asked about that stat and if there was anything different in his play since the postseason started. 

“I’m just trying to bring the same game every night, do whatever I can to help the team win games,” Goodrow explained. “Try to bring my best game every night.” 

“Everyone knows what he brings to the team,” Trocheck said of his teammate. “He’s a guy you can count on defensively, to bring his best effort every night, play physical, and this playoffs he’s been outstanding for us on both ends of the ice.”

Now that the Rangers are on the board in this series, they’ll head down to Florida to try and retake home-ice advantage by taking Game 3 on Sunday.

And while New York will take this win tonight, they know they’ll have to prepare for a fight. But the team is relieved knowing they aren’t doing it down 0-2. 

“Tonight was a huge game for us,” Goodrow said of the win. “We weren’t satisfied with how we played in Game 1. We feel a lot better with how we felt tonight.

“You definitely feel better going down to Florida 1-1 as opposed to 0-2,” Laviolette said. “So It was a big game for us.”

Game 3 will start at 3 p.m. on Sunday.