“It was difficult to score, generating the quality we wanted to generate," New York coach Peter Laviolette said. “We knew that coming in from the way (Florida) finished the season and from the first and second round.

"They weren’t giving up a lot. Ultimately, it is something we were able to do pretty consistently through the course of the year. Look at the scores, the games. Low-scoring, one-goal games. Ultimately, finding the next goal inside of a game could be the difference."

Bennett opened the scoring for Florida with a goal at 19:10 of the first period. Evan Rodrigues intercepted a clearing attempt by Erik Gustafsson in the neutral zone and quickly passed the puck to Bennett. The latter entered the offensive zone and delivered a pass to Rodrigues, who immediately returned the puck to Bennett for a one-timer from the left circle.

“It was big because they are a good team with a lot of offensive weapons,” Bennett said. “(New York) is going to score some goals, but we did a good job of limiting that and just shutting it down. It was a heck of an effort. The close-out games are always the hardest and shows just how dedicated this group is to winning.”

Tarasenko extended Florida's lead to 2-0 at 9:08 of the third period, converting a backdoor pass from Anton Lundell at the right post. The sequence began when Eetu Luostarinen aggressively pursued the puck, stripping it from Rangers defenseman K'Andre Miller.

“It is very good, especially for the young guys, to get this playoff experience,” Tarasenko stated. “Most everyone was here last year. It’s one thing to hear about it, it is another thing to feel it. It is helping us out a lot."

Panarin narrowed the gap to 2-1 at 18:20, elevating a shot over Bobrovsky from the right circle as Shesterkin was on the bench for the extra skater. "I don't think you can say they don't deserve to win," Rangers skipper Jacob Trouba said. 

"I think they definitely deserved to win series. We were right there but just came up a little short."