Rangers let Tampa back into the series with 3-2 loss

The goalie war

Andrei Vasilevskiy finally lived up to his advance billing, making some outstanding stops while making 28 saves and allowing only two power play goals.  He was helped by a shorthanded Barclay Goodrow post in the second period, but he also stopped Goodrow on a point blank shot in the first period.

Igor Shesterkin faced 51 shots and allowed only one even strength goal.  He stopped Kucherov on a breakaway in the first period and faced 19 shots in the third period alone.

The Lightning took some liberties with Shesterkin.  In a two minute span it in the second period Corey Perry slashed him in the face and then Riley Nash took him out when he crashed skates first into the the Ranger netminder.

After the game, Gallant said that they would be bringing it up with the league as it was clear that the Lightning were doing their best to disrupt Shesterkin’s game and they came very close to injuring him.   The coach said “It fazes me more than  him (Shesterkin). I don’t like it…hopefully when we talk to the supervisors they’ll take care of some of that cause it wasn’t right.”

Special teams were crucial

The Rangers power play was clicking again, scoring twice in five opportunities (two abbreviated), but in this game, the Lightning power play was just as good, scoring twice as well in four chances.

Jacob Trouba had a bad night for penalties, taking two minors that resulted in goals and one that negated a four minute power play.  It would be harsh to call them dumb penalties, but at least one could have been avoided and another was a very soft call.  Two of the penalties were when he was caught up ice, once with a broke stick.

The penalty kill did give up two goals, but were clutch when Frank Vatrano took a goalie interference penalty at a point when the Lightning were swarming in the thid period.

The game

The first period was scoreless as both teams traded chances.  Tampa’s best opportunity was when Shesterkin stoned Kucherov on a breakaway coming out of the penalty box. That was followed by a series of tremendous stops by Vasilevskiy on the fourth line.  Tampa ended up with 15 shots to the Rangers’ 12 though both teams had three high danger scoring chances.

The Rangers got the lead in the second period when Mika Zibanejad scored at 7:37 after a penalty to Corey Perry for slashing the mask of Igor Shesterkin.

It ws the classic one-timer from the Swede, beating Vasilevskiy above the blocker.   It was Zibajenad’s sixth power play goal, tying the franchise record set by Adam Graves in 1996.

The Lightning again ran Shesterkin and took another penalty to Riley Nash less than a minute after Zibanejad scored.  This time it was Chris Kreider who scored easily on the rebound of another Zibanejad one-timer that Vasilevskiy stopped.

It was Kreider’s 34th playoff goal, tying him for the franchise lead with the legendary Rod Gilbert.

With the two goal lead, the Bolts were on their heels and all it would take would be a third goal for New York to put the series away.   It wasn’t to happen as Trouba took his first penalty and Nikita Kucherov made short work of it, scoring 41 seconds into the man advantage.

The goal gave the Lighting new life and it showed in their play as they pressed the second half of the period.

The third period started with the Rangers up 2-1.   In the regular season the Rangers had only lost once in 25 games when they took a lead into the third period, but they lost for the second time in nine games in the playoffs.

Again, it was Trouba who took the penalty just 37 seconds into the period, a hold on Anthony Cirelli behind the Rangers net. While Trouba’s earlier penalty was clear, the hold was minimal and much less of a penalty than most of the other shenanigans in this game.

However, this time it was Steven Stamkos with the one-timer as Tampa  tied the score just 82 seconds into the period.

The Blueshirts could never get the mojo back as the Lightning dominated play. They had 31 shot attempts to 11 for New York , outshot the Rangers 19-6 and had 10 high danger scoring chances to only one for the Blueshirts.  When the Rangers said that they were only their heels, they weren’t kidding.  Tampa was playing for their season and it showed.

The worst part of allowing the tying goal was giving it up in the first two minutes of the period.  If the Rangers had been able to hold onto the lead deeper into the third period, it would have forced Tampa to take more chances and it would have given the Rangers the chance to counterpunch and put the game away.

The Rangers were handed a golden opportunity with nine minutes left when Kucherov took a four minute high sticking penalty, but again, it was Trouba who took a penalty late in the first minor to negate the man advantage.

The winning goal by Ondrej Palat was indicative of the play in the period.  The Lightning held the puck in the Rangers’ zone and scored on a beautiful passing play from Hedman to Kucherov who crossed everyone up by giving the puck to Palat.

The Rangers were guilty of chasing and never were in  position to clear.

Here is a full video recap of the game.

No one said it would be easy

The Rangers played well for most of two periods, but couldn’t hold off the Lightning in the third period, who were helped by an iffy penalty call.  They came thisclose to taking the game to overtime and could easily have stolen this game.

The loss of Strome and all of the special teams play did hamper the Rangers’ ability to send out four lines, something that has helped them immeasurably the first two games.

We’ve heard all of the cliches. A two goal lead is the hardest one to hold…the fourth win is the hardest to get…you’re never really in trouble until you lose at home.  For Ranger fans, the last one is the most relevant.  They still hold a 2-1 lead in the series and they came to Tampa looking for a split.  Now, a win on Tuesday is more important, but they still own home ice and if they can hold serve at Madison Square Garden, they will win the series.

Maybe they think that Colorado will sweep Edmonton and the Rangers want this series to go long so the Avalanche will have the dreaded “too much time off” syndrome when the Blueshirts make it to the Final.

That’s silly speculation and you can be sure that the Rangers will regroup and “Team Resilience” will play their hearts out on Tuesday night and win with the intention to close out the series in New York on Thursday.