TAMPA, Fla. — The Lightning storm finally hovered over the Eastern Conference Final.
For the first time all series, Tampa Bay looked like the reigning back-to-back Stanley Cup champions and even though the Rangers hung in there for a majority of the game, they slipped up in the third period and Lightning top-line winger Ondrej Palat scored with 41.6 seconds left in regulation to hand the visitor’s a 3-2 loss and make it a 2-1 series.
The Rangers came incredibly close to taking a stranglehold on this series, but Tampa Bay is not a team that will bow out gracefully.
“I wouldn’t say we let it get away because they played really well,” head coach Gerard Gallant said. “But we could’ve stolen it tonight and been up 3-0.”
It was the battle of the power plays in the second and third periods, with both teams scoring two each and combining for 10 penalties. Though the Rangers built a quick 2-0 lead off of goals from Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider, the Lightning made them pay for two Jacob Trouba penalties — one in the second and one in the third to knot the game at 2-all.
Trouba was called for three infractions in total, including a trip on Alex Killorn late in the third to negate the majority of the remainder of a four-minute power play for the Rangers.
“I think we want to play five-on-five,” said Adam Fox, who plays a major role on both the power play and penalty kill. “We have a real good power play, but as you can see, so do they. I think we’re a skill-and-speed team and we play better when the game is flowing and we can play five-on-five.
“Obviously, lost a little momentum at the start of the third, just couldn’t get it back.”
Tampa Bay was clearly trying to crowd Igor Shesterkin’s crease all game and get in his face. The Lightning’s Riley Nash was ultimately penalized for goalie interference at 8:23 of the second, which allowed Kreider to bury a rebound off a one-timer from Zibanejad for the 2-0 lead.
The power-play goal also tied Kreider with Rod Gilbert for the most man-advantage tallies in franchise history (34) and tied Adam Graves for the most goals in a single season (62).
The Rangers were down to 11 forwards for a majority of the game after second-line center Ryan Strome took a cross check to the lower back from Palat early on in the second period. Strome returned for one shift before retreating back to the locker room for the remainder of the game with what the team said was a lower-body injury.
Tampa Bay may have finally looked like the champions who have terrorized the NHL for the last two seasons, but the Rangers still skated right with them until the third period. The Rangers have struggled in the regular season and at times in the postseason with protecting leads, and they have also gotten caught playing not to lose instead of playing to win.
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tRY IT NOWAnd this is the Rangers’ first lead in a series during this playoff run.
However, no one has to tell the Rangers that they won’t get away with that against the Lightning. The learning curves just keep going up for the Rangers, and they’ll have to adapt in order to secure Game 4 on Tuesday and send the series back to New York with a chance to clinch a Stanley Cup Final berth in Game 5 on Thursday.
“Each game has its own kind of thing, each period, each shift,” Kreider said. “There’s so much that goes on in a series. I think the most important thing is just staying in the moment.”
