The Tampa Bay Lightning played in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final on Wednesday night against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden. This was the first playoff meeting between these two teams since the 2015 Conference Finals. The Lightning were entering their third consecutive Conference Finals, looking to continue their push for a three-peat. For the Rangers, it was their first time in the Conference Finals since 2015.
Wednesday night’s Game 1 matchup went back and forth early on with each teams taking turns scoring. However, the middle of the second period saw dominance from the Rangers, who scored four unanswered goals to defeat the Bolts 6-2. Andrei Vasilevskiy appeared to be rusty after a long rest period.
Period by Period Recap
The Rangers opened the scoring in this game early with Chris Kreider scoring his ninth of the playoffs. Tampa would respond later in the frame with Steven Stamkos scoring to tie the game.
In the second period, the Rangers would take back their lead thanks to a goal from Frank Vatrano. Less than a minute later, Ondřej Palát would respond to tie the game once again. Beyond that, it was all Rangers. Filip Chytil scored two goals to put the Rangers ahead by two entering the final frame.
30 seconds into the third period, Artemi Panarin scored. New York wasn’t done there as Mika Zibanejad scored another one to seal the win for the Rangers in 6-2 fashion.
In a losing effort, Vasilevsky went 22-27 with a save percentage of .824%. Meanwhile, Igor Shehsterkin of the Rangers went 29-31 with a save percentage of .949%.
Up Next
The Tampa Bay Lightning look to tie the series at one apiece in Game 2 on Friday night at MSG.