The New York Rangers were about four minutes away from another misstep on Saturday and losing control of their destiny in the Eastern Conference postseason race while possibly losing the top spot in the Metropolitan Division for the first time in over five months.
Thanks to key plays by Artemi Panarin, Igor Shesterkin and Vincent Trocheck, the Rangers can clinch the division title Monday night when they host the Ottawa Senators in their regular-season finale.
The Rangers are closing in on their first division title since beating the Washington Capitals by 12 points in 2014-15. This season's race has been significantly closer, and a regulation loss on Saturday against the New York Islanders, coupled with the Carolina Hurricanes beating the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday, would have dropped the Rangers one point out of the division lead.
Instead, the Rangers (54-23-4, 112 points) will enter their final game with the lead and needing just to win since the most points Carolina can attain is 113.
Coming off lackluster showings in a 4-2 loss to the Islanders and a 4-1 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers, the Rangers were 4:17 away from taking a regulation loss to the Islanders.
Instead of taking three straight regulation losses for the second time this season, Panarin scored the tying goal off a faceoff win from Trocheck, Shesterkin denied Adam Pelech on a penalty shot before Panarin's goal and then sent the game to the shootout with a sprawling save on Mathew Barzal in the final seconds of overtime. Upon reaching the shootout, Panarin and Trocheck scored to give the Rangers a 3-2 win.
"He's a guy that we look to in those moments," Trocheck said of Panarin, who has 10 goals and 14 assists during a 12-game points streak. "He came through again, and I don't think anybody is surprised."
The Rangers also set a team record for regular-season wins and can set a team record for points.
"There's still one more regular-season game left and you want to make sure you're doing your best to make sure you're getting the two points, getting the wins, and if you do that well enough, then you get a chance to play for the Stanley Cup," New York coach Peter Laviolette said.
New York's second-half surge, which has seen the team go 25-7-1 following an 11-12-1 stretch, began Jan. 27 in Ottawa when Panarin was among seven players to score and had two assists in a 7-2 rout.
Ottawa (36-40-4, 76 points) is 8-4-0 in its past 12 games and 11-7-0 in 18 games since dropping seven straight Feb. 26-March 9. The stretch includes wins over Edmonton, Tampa Bay, Pittsburgh and Winnipeg.
Ottawa heads to New York for a back-to-back set against the Rangers and Boston Bruins coming off a pair of shootout wins.
Drake Batherson scored 2:11 into the third period and Brady Tkachuk scored the only goal of the shootout in Thursday's win at Tampa Bay. The Senators then earned a 5-4 win over Montreal in their home finale Saturday. Tkachuk scored two power-play goals, Thomas Chabot netted the tying goal with 65 seconds left in the third period and Batherson scored the lone goal of the shootout.
"I thought we battled hard," Martin said after Ottawa tied a season best by scoring three power-play goals for the second time this season. "Have to give a lot of credit to our power play; three power-play goals. But I think what's more significant is we stayed with it."
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