The Tampa Bay Lightning overcame a 2-0 deficit to eventually beat the New York Rangers 3-2 on Sunday at Amalie Arena.
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The Bolts secured their first lead of the game with just 42 seconds left in the third period. While he was behind the game, Nikita Kucherov served a skillful pass to Ondrej Palat, who beat Igor Shesterkin under the mitt. This success allowed the Florida team to reduce the gap to 2 to 1 in the Eastern Conference final series.
“We were down 2-0 in the series, so almost everything was on the line in the third period,” Steven Stamkos told nhl.com following the game. The period reflected our style of play. It was a good team effort tonight [dimanche].»
Rangers defender Jacob Trouba has been in the news since the start of the playoffs, due to his spectacular shoulder shots. He certainly did not fall into the good graces of his head coach on Sunday, however, as he allowed the Bolts to return to the game by picking up three minor penalties.
His first opened the door for Nikita Kucherov midway through the second period; his second allowed Steven Stamkos to tie the game; his third, finally, cut in half the four-minute numerical advantage that Kucherov had offered to the “Blueshirts” in the third period.
A shared indiscipline
Rangers were, however, the first to take advantage of their rivals’ indiscipline in the middle period following a rather quiet first engagement that featured more Shesterkin and Andrei Vasilevskiy.
“We were able to take advantage of their indiscipline early in the game to build a lead, but we got penalties followingwards,” said star defenseman Adam Fox. Their team is talented and they take advantage of their chances. Our third period just wasn’t good enough.”
Mika Zibanejad opened the scoring first with a hard one-timer that beat the last Conn-Smythe Trophy winner to the shield side.
Only two minutes later, Zibanejad tried to do the trick once more while Riley Nash was in the dungeon. This time, Vasilevskiy fended off the shot from the Swedish pivot… but mightn’t control the return shot. None other than Chris Kreider was well positioned at the mouth of the net, earning him a 10e goal since the start of the spring tournament.
Elsewhere, Rangers center Ryan Strome was forced out of the game in the second half with a lower-body injury. Head coach Gerard Gallant had no update on him following the game.
The Rangers will try to put the Lightning once morest the wall on Tuesday, in Game 4 of the series.
First period
No goal
Punitions: Kucherov (TB) 8:03
Second period
1-NYR: Mika Zibanejad (10) (Fox, Panarin) AN-7: 37
2-NYR: Chris Kreider (10) (Zibanejad, Panarin) AN-9: 44
3-TB: Nikita Kucherov (6) (Hedman, Stamkos) AN-10: 50
Punitions: Lindgren (NYR) 4:50, Colton (TB) 4:50, Zibanejad (NYR) 5:06, Perry (TB) 6:38, Nash (TB) 8:23, Oven (NYR) 10:09
Third period
4-TB: Steven Stamkos (6) (Perry, Kucherov) AN-1: 22
5-TB: Ondrej Palat (6) (Kucherov, Hedman) 19:18
Punitions: Oven (NYR) 0:37, Vatrano (NYR) 6:27, Kucherov (TB) (doumin) 10:56, Oven (NYR) 12:29
Shoot to the net
Rangers NY 12 – 12 – 6 – 30Tampa Bay 15 – 17 – 19 – 51
Guardians:
NYR: Igor Shesterkin (P, 10-6), TB: Andrei Vasilevskiy (G, 9-5)
Numerical advantages:
KIDNEY: 2 and 5, TB: 2 and 4
Referees:
Kelly Sutherland, Gord Dwyer
Linesmen:
Brad Kovachik, Devin Berg
ASSISTANCE:
19 092
