Panthers Fall 5-1 to Rangers in 2026 Winter Classic

MIAMI — Arriving at a hockey game in Ferraris, while wearing Miami Vice themed attire, and cigars in hand, isn’t the norm.

Neither is playing an outdoor hockey game at a baseball park in Miami.

On Friday night in Little Havana, the Florida Panthers and New York Rangers faced off in front of 36,000, under the open roof of loanDepot Park, home of the Miami Marlins, for the 2026 Winter Classic.

Temperature at puck drop was 63.1 degrees, making it the second warmest outdoor hockey game in NHL history (2016 Stadium Series at Coors Field in Denver was 65 degrees).

The spectacle, the atmosphere, the event is one nobody will forget.

The final result, however, is something the Panthers will want to erase from their memories.

Mika Zibanejad had a hat-trick, Artemi Panarin scored twice and the Rangers took down the Panthers 5-1 in Miami.

New York improved to 6-0-0 in outdoor games with the win. Florida is now 0-1-0 after losing its first and only outdoor game.

“[It was a] great setup,” Panthers forward Eetu Luostarinen said. “Other than the score of the game, everybody enjoyed it. It was a really, really big event for the fans.”

Zibanejad opened the scoring on the power-play with 4:51 to play in the first period. Alexis Lafreniere threaded a pass across the crease to an unmarked Zibanejad, who put away his 13th goal of the season to give New York a 1-0 lead.

On the very next shift, the Rangers took a 2-0 lead after Panarin fluttered a shot from the point up and over Sergei Bobrovsky for his 15th goal of the season.

Zibanejad scored his second goal of the night and 14th of the season just 58 seconds into the second period after Lafreniere once again set him up with a cross-zone pass for a one-timer.

In the 43 NHL outdoor games prior to Friday night, there had only been five shutouts. After 40 minutes of play, the Rangers and Igor Shesterkin looked like they had a good chance to make that number six.

Florida finally got on the board with the franchise’s first ever outdoor game goal in the third.

On the power-play, Sam Reinhart scored his 23rd goal of the season — tying Brad Marchand for the team lead — 2:20 into the final period of regulation. Sam Bennett drove the net before sending over a back-hand pass to Reinhart, cutting the deficit to two.

Panarin ended any hope of a Panthers comeback after he scored his second goal of the night with 7:35 to play. The Russian forward buried a power-play goal top-shelf for his 16th of the season, putting the Rangers up 4-1.

Zibanejad put away an empty netter to make it 5-1 and complete his hat-trick with 1:28 to play in regulation.

”Obviously you’d like a meter result,” Sam Reinhart said post game. “It‘s been a heck of a few days, but ultimately we would have liked a better game from the get-go.”

Despite the lopsided score, Panthers head coach Paul Maurice raved about the event itself.

“[I’ll remember] how incredibly spectacular a job the National Hockey League does at putting on a game,” said Maurice. “And the idea of a southern setting. The ice was fine. The spectacle was incredible. The roof opening, the U.S. flag on the ice, the national anthem. All of it.

”It was just brilliant. The entire weekend. They’re (the NHL) so good at it now you got to figure out a way almost to get every team to play one a year because it would be a highlight of the year for a team.”