The Tampa Bay Lightning are back to their dominant playoff form.
On Thursday night, in a potential do-or-die game for both teams, it would be the Lightning who came out on top in Midtown Manhattan, winning 3-1 to take a 3-2 series lead heading back to Tampa, where they have a chance to close out the series on Saturday night. With their loss, it would snap the Rangers eight-game home winning streak in the playoffs, which is tied for the longest in club history.
Tampa Bay is now one win away from advancing to the Stanley Cup for the third-straight year.
First Period:
The game would start out very defensively, as there were not a lot of shots taken in the period, despite the Rangers outshooting the Lightning, 8-3.
Despite not having a lot of shots in the period, Tampa had two close calls when shots by Nikita Kucherov and Nick Paul hit the post.
Second Period:
There would be a little bit more offense in this game, as Tampa got their rhythm during this period, as they would outshoot the Rangers 13-8.
Tampa would receive a penalty for too many men on the ice, and despite killing the penalty, around 45 seconds later, the Rangers would draw first blood at 10:29 in the period when a shot by Ryan Lindgren would sneak in short-side from the boards.
However, Tampa would tie the game late in the period when Mikhail Sergachev would shoot a wrister from near the blue line and beat Igor Shesterkin five-hole.
Third Period:
There would be big saves on both ends, all throughout the third period.
However, one of the main turning points of the game came within 32 seconds, when a pass from Nils Lundkvist came to Ryan Strome, who missed a wide open net. After that, Andrei Vasilevisky came up huge with two sprawling saves on Adam Fox and Ryan Lindgren.
Tampa would get the go-ahead goal with a minute and 50 seconds remaining when a shot by Mikhail Sergachev would get redirected by Ondrej Palat, who pushed it past Shesterkin.
The Rangers pulled Shesterkin, and then Brandon Hagel would ice the game 59 seconds after the Palat goal.
After the game, there would be some pretty major scrums, highlighted by Steven Stamkos sitting down Alexis Lafreniere.
Simply, the Lightning’s two unanswered goals proved to be the difference in the win at Madison Square Garden.
Next Up:
Can the Tampa Bay Lightning advance to their third straight Stanley Cup Final, this time against the Colorado Avalanche?
We will find out if they do on Saturday night at 8 pm on ESPN/SportsNet. If the Lightning do not win in Game 6, we will have an exciting and entertaining affair for Game 7 at Madison Square Garden.