Recap: Touchdown in Tampa, Rangers Beat the Bolts 7-3

After getting the monkey off their back on home ice, the New York Rangers hit the road again to take on the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first of three meetings this season. The Lightning were a bit shorthanded with some injuries and the Rangers took advantage of that as they got off to a fantastic start and found a way to put on an offensive showing in another multi-goal win despite a rather low shot tally.

Before we get into the action, stick taps to Urho Vaakanainen who was skating in his 200th career game tonight. 

First Period

Just 45 seconds into play, the Lightning were called for the first penalty of the game as Yanni Gourde took Adam Fox down from behind, sending him into the boards in the neutral zone. Bit of a dangerous play with Fox in a vulnerable position as that would send Gourde off for tripping. 

It didn’t take long for the Rangers to find success on the power play as Artemi Panarin moved the puck to Fox at the point. HIs shot deflected wide but by the time the puck bounced off the boards, Will Cuylle was right there to bang it home, giving the Rangers a 1-0 lead just 69 seconds into the game. 

Just over two minutes later, a great interception from Mika Zibanejad in the neutral zone led the rush where he would fake a slap shot before sending a pass over to J.T. Miller. It looked initially as if Miller dished it in at the doorstep but the pass actually hit the skate of Erik Cernak before sliding into the back of the net, 2-0 game. 

Tampa utilized their timeout in attempts to hit the reset button a bit and sure enough, that would work in their favor. A couple of shifts later, Scott Sabourin, in his first game in the NHL this season, led the rush on a 2-on-1. The veteran fourth liner opted for the shot which must have fooled Igor Shesterkin as it found the back of the net to cut the Rangers lead in half. 

Shortly after the Lightning’s first goal, Brandon Hagel tried pulling off a toe drag deke around Carson Soucy. The 6-5 Rangers’ defender laid Hagel out with a massive hit and as play went the other way, Alexis Lafrenière found the back of the net with a great shot off a fantastic feed from Panarin. 3-1 Rangers. 

Things evened out for a while there and with six minutes to go in the opening period, the Rangers couldn’t get the puck out of their zone, lost some puck battles in the process and allowed the Lightning to bring themselves back within one. Zemgus Girgensons would capitalize on a rebound to make it a 3-2 game. 

The Lightning nearly tied the game up on the following shift but a beautiful save by Shesterkin shut down a grade-A chance on an odd-man rush. Nikita Kucherov had Gage Goncalves wide open at the doorstep but it was met by the pad of a sprawling Shesterkin. 

With just under four minutes to go, a great defensive effort from Adam Fox sent J.T. Miller out to lead the rush. He tried to find Gabe Perreault who would have had a great chance for his first NHL goal but the intended pass took a deflection, ending up in the corner. Nonetheless, the Rangers went to work on the forecheck and did a great job of keeping the puck in play. Will Borgen would end up with a rolling puck at the point which took a deflection on its way past Andrei Vasilevskiy to make it a 4-2 game. 

About thirty seconds later, the Rangers were back to the power play as Gourde took a bad slashing penalty against Fox. That ended up working in Tampa’s favor as Jake Guentzel ended up with a shorthanded breakaway and beat Shesterkin with a slick forehand-backhand move. 4-3 hockey game. The Rangers wouldn’t convert on the remainder of the man advantage but the Lightning sure came close with a couple of chances to close out the period. 

And that was that. An insane start to this one as the Rangers were up 4-3 with Tampa out-shooting them 10-7. The Rangers had three goals on their first three shots of the game and closed the period out scoring on four of seven total shots. Two of the best goalies in the world playing in this one and seven goals in the opening twenty. 

Second Period

The Rangers got off to a much slower start in the second as the Lightning were dominating the first five minutes of play. There was close to a two minute stretch where the Lightning had hemmed the Rangers in their own end of the ice, keeping the Zibanejad line out there for an extended shift. Shortly afterwards, the Lightning got their first power play of the night as Igor Shesterkin tripped up Brayden Point who was breaking in on him all alone. Adam Edstrom would draw the short straw and serve the penalty for him. 

The Rangers would weather the storm and fight off the man advantage to hold onto their lead nearing the midway point of the outing. However, nearing that ten minute mark, the Rangers had just one shot on goal in the second period and were being out-shot 20-9. Here’s a tweet that best explains this game and frankly the Rangers season up to this point. 

With just under two minutes to go, the Rangers extended their lead to 5-3 in a pretty comical way. Artemi Panarin led his linemates on the rush and as Vincent Trocheck received the pass, Vasilevskiy tripped himself up while going from one side of the crease to the other. This allowed for Trocheck to simply put the puck on net, scoring probably one of the easier goals of his career for his long awaited first of the season. 

Aside from that, and a one timer from Panarin that nearly made it 6-3, the Lightning pretty much owned the second stanza, out-shooting the Rangers 12-5. Still, the Rangers managed to make the most of their opportunities and came out of the period with a two goal lead. 

Third Period

It’s not often that Andrei Vasilevskiy gets chased from the net but that would be the case tonight as Jonas Johansson replaced him for the start of the third period. Whether that had more to do with that weak Trocheck goal or as a tactic to wake the team up can be up for debate. Nonetheless, he was tested early as Lafrenière had an early chance with a one timer that required a strong save from Tampa’s number two. 

Five minutes into the third, Trocheck would pick up his second of the night as he beat Johansson with a wrist shot with some traffic in front to help extend the Rangers lead to 6-3. Fourth assist on the night from Artemi Panarin.

There would be some extra curricular activities following a frozen puck from Shesterkin as Sabourin was right in the blue paint giving the Rangers' netminder an extra jab with the stick. Shesterkin was quick to defend himself as was his teammates as a lively, albeit short lived scrum took place. The Lightning would come out of that with a power play as Gavrikov was given a double minor for his participation in the scrum.

The Rangers were successful in killing off the man advantage and would get another power play of their own as the Lightning were called for a too-many men on the ice infraction. For the second time this evening, they would come up empty handed on the power play but on the bright side, they didn't a goal up this time around.

Adam Fox sent the Rangers back to the penalty kill as he cross-checked Guentzel in front of Shesterkin. With the man advantage, the Lightning decided to make it a 6-on-4, pulling Johansson for the extra attacker. The Rangers fought off the advantage but the power play gave Tampa a ton of momentum that they carried well beyond the end of the penalty to Fox.

Took a pair of icings but the Rangers were finally able to put the puck into the empty net as Will Cuylle picked up his second of the night to make it 7-3. That would do it for this one as the Rangers took advantage of their strong start and have now scored 13 goals in their last two games. Final shots on goal tally would be 34-20 in Tampa's favor.

The Rangers are back at it for a back-to-back stretch this weekend as they'll visit the Columbus Blue Jackets before hosting the Detroit Red Wings.