A strong effort from the New York Rangers as they beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-1

The New York Rangers end their five game home stand on a high note and defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-1 behind the goaltending of Alexandar Georgiev.

In a game that was flared by tensions early, a rather unconventional spark was lit behind the New York Rangers, which ultimately catapulted them to a victory over the reigning Presidents’ Trophy winner, Tampa Bay Lightning.  The Blueshirts were missing Mika Zibanejad and coming off a demoralizing loss to Boston on Sunday.  With Henrik Lundqvist on the bench and Marc Staal a healthy scratch, the average age for the Blueshirts was 24, easily making this lineup the youngest in the NHL.

Not even two minutes into the game, both Patrick Maroon and Micheal Haley locked up, dropped their mitts, and started to fight. Healy was the last man standing as he got a clubbing blow in on the back of the neck of Maroon, sending him to the ice, and sending both of these players to the penalty box to serve a five minute major for fighting. Maroon would not come back as he was ruled out with an upper body injury.

Just 17 seconds later, a second scrum broke out on the ice after Luke Witkowski boarded Ryan Lindgren. This created a pile up on the ice and when it was all said and done, resulted in the New York Rangers first power play of the night. Unfortunately, they were unable  to score while getting three shots.

It would be back and forth between these two teams until the 15:44 mark, when a bad change by the Rangers resulted in the first goal of the game.  The Ryan Strome had an opportunity to clear the puck after the Ranger quintet had been on the ice for over a minute.  He failed to clear and the Lightning spent the next 47 seconds buzzing in the Rangers zone.   When a Nikita Kucherov pass missed Ryan McDonagh and got back into center ice, the exhausted Rangers went for a change.   Brayden Point was then able to pick it up and race towards an unprotected Rangers goalie Alexandar Georgiev .  Point would find Kucherov with a slick pass and score to give the Lightning a 1-0 lead. This would be Kucherov’s first goal in his last six games and his fourth on the season. Point was credited with the assist and Steven Stamkos was credited with the secondary assist.

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Although the Rangers finished with more shots on goal (14 to 11), more faceoff wins (10 to 8), power plays (2 to 1), and takeaways (6 to 5), they were not able to get anything passed Andrei Vasilevskiy. The late change that allowed Kucherov to score was the difference maker in a period that had ‘New York Rangers’ written all over it.

The second period would start with a Rangers power play carrying over from the first period but were not able to get anything past Vasilevskiy. It was another power play with three shots on goal and none of them hitting the back of the net.

The Rangers would get another opportunity with a one man advantage at the 7:10 mark after Mathieu Joseph interfered with Kaapo Kakko, and then just 1:40 later, would have a two man advantage after Ondrej Palat was called for slashing Adam Fox. With a five on three advantage, the Rangers were not able to get anything. Their best chance was by Ryan Strome whose shot went wide above the crease and ricocheted out of the Rangers zone and ended their five on three power play.

The Blueshirts still held the man advantage, and they made the most of it as Kakko would finally get the Rangers on the board and score the second goal of his career at the 9:37 mark. The Kakko wrist shot hit off of Vasilevskiy, then off of the back of the skate of Braydon Coburn and then the back of the net to tie the game up at one. Strome was credited with the assist and Artemi Panarin was credited with the secondary assist.

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The play by Georgiev in between the net in the second period was some of the best he’s had all season. The Lightning took 11 shots and not one was able to get past him. A couple of slick saves on shots by Mathieu Joseph and Mikhail Sergachev in the closing minutes kept this game tied at one.

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The first 12 minutes of the third period was shot after shot for both teams and save after save by both Vasilevskiy and Georgiev. It wasn’t until Pavel Buchnevich created a takeaway in the neutral zone and found a cutting Filip Chytil going towards the net to give the Rangers a 2-1 lead. Chytil, who is playing his first game of the season in the NHL after being called up from Hartford, was able to stick his stick up in the air and deflect the puck to get it past Vasilevskiy at the 12:46 mark. This was Chytil’s first goal of the season. Buchnevich was credited with the assist.

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A few minutes later, Adam Fox joined the party and netted his first career NHL goal on a rebound after Vasilevskiy stopped Chris Kreider’s shot. Kreider had a two on one break with Buchnevich and a trailing Fox was able to put in the rebound to get his second point of the season. The goal came at the 17:24 mark. Kreider was credited with the assist and Ryan Lindgren was credited with the secondary assist.

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To seal the game, Ryan Strome scored his third goal of the season on an empty netter as the Lightning were looking to capitalize on the one man advantage late in the game. The goal was unassisted and came at the 19:14 mark. The goal by Strome would be the fourth straight goal for the Rangers on a night where they dominated the second and third periods of this contest.

Georgiev and Vasilevskiy went save for save for a larger portion of this game. Georgiev, however, outplayed the reigning Vezina Trophy winner. He saved 29 of 30 shots that went his way, as the Blueshirts killed two penalties. This was quite easily the best all around game of the season for the Blueshirts.  It was only the second game this young season that they have allowed 30 shots on goal or fewer.

The Rangers outshot the Lightning 42-30. The most shots they’ve had all season in a game!

The Blueshirts are now 4-5-1 and have nine points on the young season.