SUNRISE, Fla. — Henrik Lundqvist made 40 saves for his third shutout of the season, and rookie Derek Stepan scored his sixth goal in the New York Rangers’ 3-0 victory over the Florida Panthers on Friday night.
Ryan Callahan and Brandon Prust also scored, and Marc Staal had two assists.
Scott Clemmensen stopped 16 shots for Florida. The Panthers have lost three in a row for the first time this season.
Trailing 3-0, Florida pulled its goalie with more than 3 minutes left.
The Panthers failed to score on five power-play opportunities, and have failed to score in 33 straight chances.
Lundqvist, who gave up 17 goals while losing four of his last five decisions, recorded his 27th career shutout. His best stop probably came in the second period when he made a pad save on Mike Santorelli’s redirection from the front of the net.
Florida was shut out for the second time in eight days. The Panthers lost 4-0 at Boston on Nov. 18.
Florida almost took the lead in the first period when Shawn Matthias’ wrist shot off a loose puck went off the left post.
The Panthers thought they had scored in the third period when Chris Higgins banged home a rebound after a flurry of shots from close range, but the goal was disallowed because of a hand pass.
Stepan extended his point streak to six games at 10:06 of the first period right after the Rangers had killed off a penalty. Stepan put a rebound past Clemmensen after he stopped a wrist shot from Sean Avery, who had just come out of the penalty box.
Callahan made it 2-0 at 5:24 of the third period with a beautiful tip of Erik Christensen’s shot on the power play. Callahan tipped the shot with his back to the net, and the deflection beat Clemmensen to the far side.
Prust closed out the scoring with a short-handed goal at 14:25. He beat Clemmensen on a 2-on-1 rush with a wrist shot low to the stick side.
NOTES: The Rangers have scored at least one power-play goal in four consecutive games. … The victory was the Rangers’ first in five games against teams from the Southeast Division. … Florida LW David Booth has now gone 10 games without a goal. … Rangers D Michal Roszival missed his ninth consecutive game because of a shoulder injury. … New York LW Derek Boogard sat out the game with a shoulder injury.