Cole Reinhardt scores twice as Florida Panthers beat New York Rangers
Paul Maurice has preached that the Florida Panthers finish the season the right way. They know they’re not making the Stanley Cup playoffs. That ship sailed a long time ago. Focus externally has shifted to tracking where the Panthers are in the standings, with a top-10 pick in the draft the priority among those outside the dressing room.
That’s not how the Panthers operate.
“You can’t get involved in that,” Maurice said of the idea of the team tanking down the stretch. “It’s not right for the game. It’s not right for the culture of our room.”
That was on display again Monday night, as Florida defeated the New York Rangers 3-2 at Amerant Bank Arena in their penultimate game.
Cole Reinhardt, who has scored in three consecutive games, scored the game-winner with 1:50 left in regulation for his first multi-goal game of the season.
Florida improves to 39-38-4. The Rangers fall to 33-39-9.
Yes, that hurts Florida’s spot in the draft lottery standings — and the Panthers only keep their first-round pick if it’s a top-10 selection. Pending the rest of the results of Monday’s games, Florida can finish anywhere from fifth to 10th in the lottery rankings at the end of the season. They need to finish in the top eight to ensure they keep their first-round pick.
In that sense, wins are really losses. Points gained potentially lead to lost positioning.
But good luck trying to tell Maurice or the Panthers that. Pride, culture, sportsmanship and integrity are at play.
So even with the Panthers a shell of their usual selves — 14 Florida regulars did not suit up Monday, 13 because of injury plus star winger Matthew Tkachuk because of the birth of his first child, a baby girl — the top-end effort is still there. The desire and the passion to win is still there.
And Florida never wants to let that feeling fade away, even if its season did.
“Winning is still fun,” forward Mackie Samoskevich said. “Maybe the games don’t mean as much, but we still enjoying winning a lot, especially in front of our fans.”
Reinhardt and Samoskevich scored within two minutes of each other midway through the first period against veteran Rangers goalie Jonathan Quick, who announced Monday would be the final game of his 19-season NHL career, to give Florida an early 2-0 lead.
Reinhardt’s goal, his seventh of the season and fourth since being picked up by the Panthers off waivers on March 6, came off feeds from defenseman Tobias Bjornfot and forward Vinnie Hinostroza 9:35 into the period.
Samoskevich made it 2-0 at 11:31 of the opening period with an unassisted goal off the rush. It’s Samoskevich’s 12th goal of the season and sixth in his past nine games.
Rangers defenseman Matthew Robertson cut Florida’s lead to 2-1 with 4:41 left in the first period off a shot from the point through traffic. Gabe Perreault then tied the game with 2:40 left in the second period when an Adam Fox shot rebounded off Panthers goaltender Daniil Tarasov, hit Perreault’s skate and went into the net.
Tarasov, who made 24 saves for Florida, then held off an onslaught from the Rangers in the third period before Reinhardt scored the game-winner. New York put up 13 shots against Tarasov in the final frame. He turned them all aside.
The Panthers’ season ends Wednesday when they host the Detroit Red Wings (7 p.m., Scripps Sports).
Team award recipients announced
Prior to the game Monday, the Panthers announced the winners of the third-annual Panthers Team Awards.
Goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky was voted by Panthers fans as the recipient of the Fan Choice Award.
Forward Luke Kunin was voted by his teammates as the recipient of the Unsung Hero Award. Panthers players cast their vote for the teammate whose successes and self-sacrifices for the good of the team were not always noticed or translated to the stat sheet but made an impact on the group.
Forward Brad Marchand earned the Three Stars Award, handed to the player with the most points as Star of the Game throughout Panthers home games in 2025-26. Players received points for each star they earned this season – three points for first star, two points for second star and one point for third star.
This story was originally published April 13, 2026 at 9:27 PM.
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