They were staring down the possibility of losing back-to-back home games to begin this Eastern Conference Final when Barclay Goodrow reminded everyone why he was a priority add a few summers ago. 

Goodrow scored the winning goal with 5:59 remaining in overtime, giving the Blueshirts a much-needed 2-1 victory over the Panthers in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Final on Friday at Madison Square Garden.

That evened the series at 1-1 as they shift to Florida for Game 3, which will be played Sunday at 3 p.m.

“To see him score a goal like that tonight is awesome because his role doesn’t always consist of that,” head coach Peter Laviolette said. 

“It’s not always in the offensive zone. It’s not on the power play, but when you see somebody who does so many other things that helps a team be successful, you’re really happy for a guy like that when he can make a huge impact in the game tonight offensively.”

Fifty-one games into the season, Juan Soto is sparking chants of “M-V-P!” at Yankee Stadium.

“Way too early,” Soto said after his second two-homer game of the homestand led the New York Yankees over the Seattle Mariners 7-3  and stopped New York’s first two-game losing streak in three weeks.

Soto drove a full-count sinker into the visitors’ bullpen in left in the third for a two-run homer and a 4-0 lead, a 414-foot drive off Bryce Miller that hit the back wall on a hop. Soto connected on another sinker on Miller’s first pitch of the sixth inning, a 369-foot shot into the left-field stands.

That prompted the “M-V-P!” chorus from the crowd of 40,224.

“I love when when the Bronx gets behind our guys,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “Obviously showing their appreciation for him.”

In his first season since the Yankees acquired him from San Diego, Soto is hitting .313 with 13 homers, 40 RBIs and a .978 OPS. The 25-year-old from the Dominica Republic repeatedly responds to the admiration and affection from the fans behind him in the right-field seats.

Chris Kreider had a third-period hat trick to help the New York Rangers erase a two-goal deficit and beat the Carolina Hurricanes 5-3 in Game 6 to advance to the Eastern Conference Final.

Kreider single-handedly erased the Hurricanes’ 3-1 lead entering the final period. The go-ahead score came when he got position on Jalen Chatfield at the top of the crease and tipped in Ryan Lindgren’s wraparound attempt to make it 4-3 with at the 15:41 mark.

That finally allowed the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Rangers to put away the Hurricanes, who had won two straight after falling into a 3-0 hole in the best-of-7 series. The Hurricanes appeared on the verge of forcing a Game 7 for a pressure-packed finale, but couldn’t contain Kreider and the Rangers’ surge in the final 14 minutes.