Rangers beat Panthers in NHL's first outdoor game in Florida - ESPN

MIAMI — Have a day, Mika Zibanejad.

He made Sweden's Olympic team, had a hat trick and put together the first five-point NHL outdoor game in history, all in a few hours, to help the New York Rangers beat the Florida Panthers 5-1 on Friday night in the Winter Classic — the first outdoor game played in the Sunshine State.

Artemi Panarin scored twice, Alexis Lafreniere had three assists and Igor Shesterkin stopped 36 shots for the Rangers, who improved to 6-0-0 when playing outdoors.

«I think it's hard to grasp the whole day,» Zibanejad said. «But yeah, a great 12, 16 hours. It's been a fun day.»

Sam Reinhart scored for Florida, which was playing outdoors for the first time and lost for the fourth time in its past six games. The Panthers gave up goals to Zibanejad and Panarin 64 seconds apart late in the first period, giving New York a 2-0 lead, and the Rangers kept control the rest of the way.

Panthers coach Paul Maurice said the NHL deserved enormous credit for pulling off an event he called «spectacular.»

«A Southern setting [and] the ice was fine,» Maurice said. «The spectacle was incredible. It was just brilliant, the entire kind of weekend.… I would imagine the Rangers really loved it. But for the losing coach, it was an incredible memory.»

Florida outshot New York 37-20 and had 38 hits to New York's 20.

The star of the night was Zibanejad, who reached five points in a game for the fourth time.

«He's one of our core players,» Rangers coach Mike Sullivan said. «We rely on him in so many circumstances out there on both sides of the puck.»

Zibanejad's third goal was an empty-netter with 1:28 left. Rangers fans tried throwing hats to no avail; the seats were too far from the ice for any of them to get close to the playing