The New York Rangers were ousted out of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, falling to the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game Seven of the Eastern Conference Final.
FIRST PERIOD: The New York Rangers lost their Captain, Ryan McDonagh, early on as he headed to the locker room with a broken foot probably sustained in a previous game. According to Alain Vigneault in his post game interview, it was the freezing that wasn’t working.
Midway through the period, McDonagh returned to sit next to Cam Talbot. The defenseman took his first shift, but couldn’t contribute more than three and with that he headed back into the locker room, Matt Hunwick replacing him.
For the biggest save of these twenty minutes, Henrik Lundqvist deflected a shot just over the crossbar and the puck danced on top of the net. Then in the last five minutes, the Tampa Bay Lightning held onto the puck for five more shots while the Rangers had only one.
Both teams headed to the dressing room, the Lightning with 9 shots and the Rangers with five, the scoreboard reading 0-0.
New York Rangers
SECOND PERIOD: McDonagh re-entered the game, looking fit as a fiddle.
At 3:41, refs stopped play for the softest call ever on Brenden Morrow for hooking. On the New York power play, nothing much happened besides the fact that McDonagh got a good look at the net, and play returned to even-strength.
Lundqvist made a smart play with the puck, pushing it to the Lightning bench and the Bolts were caught with too many men on the ice. This power play looked better for the Rangers as Nash set up McDonagh. The Captain took a shot for one of the best chances, along with J.T. Miller’s, in those two minutes.
On the 5-on-5, Matt Carle flattened out Chris Kreider with a clean body check. Then with mere minutes left, a surge from the lightning forced Lundqvist to do superhuman things: one of them being an unbelievable glove save on Jason Garrison.
Dan Boyle then took a rising shot that was barely blocked by Bishop’s shoulder. By the end of the segment, the Bolts had 10 shots on goal as opposed to the Rangers’ six.
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THIRD PERIOD: The first goal of the game came at 1:54 when a screen in front of Lundqvist allowed Alex Killorn‘s (7) shot to find its way through traffic and slip though the five-hole.
Lundqvist continued to give his team every chance he could, extending his glove to block Cedric Paquette‘s chance in front.
The Rangers then became relentless as Dan Girardi‘s shot had to be fended off by Bishop’s shoulder. The pressure then became so great that three of Tampa’s skaters were in the crease at one point to fend off New York.
Momentum for the Rangers then stopped altogether as Ondrej Palat (7) gave the Bolts a 2-0 lead at 11:17. With over three minutes left, Lundqvist was pulled. The Bolts got in a couple close empty netters but the game would end with the score settled at 2-0, despite the Rangers dominating in face-off wins, 40-24, overall.
STARS OF THE GAME:
1- Ben Bishop – 22 saves, 1.00 SV%
2- Alex Killorn – one goal
3- Henrik Lundqvist – 25 saves, .920 SV%
Next: Rangers First Line Needs to be Dominant
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