Lundqvist redeems himself as Rangers even series in rout
TAMPA, FLA.— Henrik Lundqvist stopped 38 shots to rebound from two sub-par performances and help the New York Rangers shut down the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-1 on Friday night in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals.
Rick Nash had two goals and an assist and former Lightning captain Martin St. Louis ended a playoff scoring drought with a third-period goal for New York. The Rangers evened the best-of-seven series 2-2 heading back to New York for Game 5 on Sunday night.
Lundqvist allowed 12 goals in losing Games 2 and 3, but redeemed himself by handling nearly everything the speedy and skilled Lightning threw at him. Tampa Bay’s Steven Stamkos scored for the third straight game, briefly making it 1-1 before New York’s Chris Kreider and Keith Yandle struck within a two-minute span for a 3-1 Rangers lead.
With the Lightning’s Nikita Nesterov in the penalty box for highsticking St. Louis, the star of Tampa Bay’s 2004 Stanley Cup champion- ship team delivered his first goal this post-season to make it 4-1 with just under 15 minutes remaining. Nash added another power-play goal at 11:33 of the third period.
The Lightning outshot the Rangers 39-24 but couldn’t rattle Lundqvist, who rejected Stamkos from pointblank range and moments later stopped Alex Killorn on a breakaway during one sequence with Tampa Bay trying to get back in the game in the second period.
Lundqvist stopped 18 of 19 shots in the period, and had 13 more saves in the third.
Earlier Friday, Lundqvist reiterated after the morning skate that he still had confidence in himself and that one of the keys to rebounding as a team would be not trying to do anything special Friday night, but rather just “do our jobs.”
In seven games against the Rangers, three of them in the regular season, the Lightning have scored at least five goals on Lundqvist four times. They had six on the road in Game 2, and six more during Wednesday night’s overtime victory that left New York searching for answers to playing better defence in front of him.
Nash led the Rangers with 42 goals during the regular season, but only had two in 15 playoff games before Friday night. The 1-0 lead held up until the Lightning broke through during a frenzied stretch of the second period in which Tampa Bay outshot New York 11-1 and failed to convert two power-play opportunities before Stamkos tied it with his sixth goal of the playoffs, a slap shot from the right circle that skipped up over Lundqvist.
It didn’t take the Rangers long to respond.
Kreider scored at15:16 of the second when Kevin Klein’s shot caromed off Bishop directly to the New York centre in front of the net. Yandle’s goal less than two minutes later hit defenceman Victor Hedman’s foot and squirted through to put New York up 3-1.
Yandle finished with a goal and two assists. Klein and Kevin Hayes each had two assists for the Rangers.