Sergei Bobrovsky turned aside 23 shots and Matthew Tkachuk had a goal and an assist to lead the Florida Panthers to a 3-0 victory over the New York Rangers in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals on Wednesday.

Carter Verhaeghe also scored and Sam Bennett tallied into an empty net as the Panthers won for the fifth time in their last six playoff games.

Igor Shesterkin stopped 24 shots for the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Rangers, who have lost three of four after opening the playoffs with seven straight wins.

Game 2 is Friday night at Madison Square Garden.

Bobrovsky made five saves in the first period, seven in the second and was at his best in the third with 11 more saves to complete his second career postseason shutout.

He denied Kaapo Kakko on a one-timer with a sliding save 6 ½ minutes into the third and stopped Alexander Wennberg on two attempts in close with seven minutes left.

New York had four shots on goal in the first 1:55 of the second period, and then went nearly 14 ½ minutes without one until Adam Fox’s attempt with 3:42 to play.

Sam Bennett made it back-to-back stage wins to cement his place as a dark horse outsider on Sunday at the Vuelta a Espana.

The 31-year-old Irishman claimed victory on Saturday amid a mass sprint in Utrecht, and backed up his points classification credentials with a second Grand Tour stage in as many days in Breda.

As the Vuelta packs up to make the transfer to Spain following its start in the Netherlands, it means Bennett – left out of the Tour de France for a second successive year – leads the points standings.

With such a strong performance to date, the BORA-hansgrohe rider is not ruling out a sustained push for the green jersey, but Bennett acknowledges the riders have barely scratched the surface of this year's race.

"There is a long way to go [and] anything can happen," Bennett said, quoted by Cycling News. "But we want the sprint jersey and we will start to commit more to look at points.

"We have two stages now, so we can make bigger decisions on when to take points and when to leave them. Hopefully we can compete for the green – that would be really nice."

Mads Pedersen nabbed second for the second day in a row, while Briton Dan McLay improved his day-by-day performance from sixth to third.

The race will resume on Tuesday, starting from Vitoria-Gasteiz in the Basque Country, with Edoardo Affini leading a top-six lockout for Jumbo-Visma in the general classification standings.

Affini is tied on the clock with three-time reigning champion Primoz Roglic, plus Sam Oomen, Sepp Kuss, Mike Teunissen and Robert Gesink.

STAGE RESULT

1. Sam Bennett (BORA-Hansgrohe) 4:05:53
2. Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) same time
3. Dan McLay (Arkea-Samsic) same time
4. Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) same time
5. Fabian Lienhard (Groupama-FDJ) same time

CLASSIFICATION STANDINGS 

General Classification

1. Edoardo Affini (Jumbo-Visma) 8:20:07
2. Sam Oomen (Jumbo-Visma) same time
3. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) same time

Points Classification

1. Sam Bennett (BORA-hansgrohe) 117
2. Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) 80
3. Pascal Ackermann (UAE Team Emirates) 34

King of the Mountains

1. Julius van den Berg (EF Education-EasyPost) 3
2. Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal) 2
3. Thibault Guernalec (Arkea-Samsic) 1

Sam Bennett claimed his first Grand Tour stage win in two years as he held off a mass sprint to take victory on Saturday at the Vuelta a Espana.

In the second of three stages held in the Netherlands, the Irishman justified his selection for BORA-Hansgrohe by refinding his form in Utrecht.

Bennett has endured a difficult season, having been left out of the Tour de France for a second straight year, but capitalised on the lead-out qualities of team-mates Ryan Mullen and Danny van Poppel.

"Danny brought me up with speed, then he was kind of ready for me to jump, but I waited a second, and I didn't know if I'd let my speed drop too much, and I was nervous I wouldn't get on top of the speed again," Bennett said.

"Danny didn't deliver me; he launched me. It was down to the boys today.

"It's nice. I knew I'd do it again, it was just a matter of getting the right legs. What I'm really happy about is continuing my pattern of winning at least one stage in every Grand Tour I've done since 2018."

Mads Pederson came in second, having been unable to sustain an early attack, with Tim Merlier finishing third.

Jumbo-Visma dominate the general classification standings, with Mike Teunissen, who crossed in fourth place, taking the leader's jersey from team-mate Robert Gesink.

Three-time reigning champion Primoz Roglic shares that lead.

More Vuelta joy for Bennett 

Bennett has now won nine stages in GTs, with four of those coming at La Vuelta. That makes the race his favourite of the big three, with the 31-year-old having won three at the Giro d'Italia and two at the Tour de France.

STAGE RESULT 

1. Sam Bennett (BORA-Hansgrohe) 3:49:34
2. Mads Pederson (Trek-Segafredo) same time
3. Tim Merlier (Alpecin-Deceuninck) same time
4. Mike Teunissen (Jumbo-Visma) same time
5. Pascal Ackermann (UAE Team Emirates) same time

CLASSIFICATION STANDINGS 

General Classification

1. Mike Teunissen (Jumbo-Visma) 4:14:14
2. Edoardo Affini (Jumbo-Visma) same time
3. Sam Oomen (Jumbo-Visma) same time

Points Classification

1. Sam Bennett (BORA-Hansgrohe) 50
2. Mads Pederson (Trek-Segafredo) 50
3. Pascal Ackermann (UAE Team Emirates) 26

King of the Mountains

1. Julius van den Berg (EF Education-EasyPost) 2
2. Thibault Guernalec (Arkea-Samsic) 1