Palat scores late to help Lightning cut into deficit
Ondrej Palat scored with 42 seconds left and the twotime defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning beat the New York Rangers 3-2 on Sunday to cut their deficit in the Eastern Conference finals to 2-1.
Palat's goal, off a nifty pass from Nikita Kucherov, capped a comeback that began after Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider scored power-play goals in a span of just over two minutes in the second period to put the Rangers up 2-0.
Facing the prospect of falling behind 3-0 in a series that began with a pair of losses on the road, the Lightning rallied with Kucherov scoring on the power play in the second period and Steven Stamkos blistering a shot past goalie Igor Shesterkin from the left circle early in the third.
Game 4 is Tuesday, with New York still in a position to move within one victory of its first trip to the Stanley Cup Final since 2014.
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 28 saves for the Lightning.
“We've been in spots like this,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “A big thing for us was, we felt we had a recipe, we just had to stay with it. I think there were times in the series where we've tried to manufacture things that weren't there that put us on our heels, gave up opportunities. Whether it was a break, whatever it was, we weren't in sync.”
Artemi Panarin had two assists for the Rangers, and Adam Fox and Zibanejad had primary helpers on power-play goals resulting from a pair of penalties drawn by Shesterkin in the second period.
Tampa Bay's Corey Perry was whistled for slashing on the first, and Riley Nash
went to penalty box for interference before Kreider's goal made it 2-0 midway through the period.
Cooper cited poor puck management and the lack of a sense of urgency as factors in Tampa Bay starting the series slowly following a nine-day layoff the defending champs earned with a second-round sweep of the Presidents Trophy-winning Florida Panthers.
Neither of those were a factor once the Lightning fell behind by two goals Sunday.
Shesterkin finished with 48 saves, but the Rangers
wasted an opportunity to regain control of the game when Kucherov drew a fourminute penalty for highsticking Zibanejad with just over nine minutes left.
In fact, New York lost the man-advantage when Jacob Trouba subsequently was penalized for tripping Tampa Bay's Alex Killorn.
Shesterkin made save after save to keep the Rangers from falling behind, but couldn't get his glove up high enough to stop Palat's winner.
BERGERON WINS SELKE >> Patrice Bergeron is the Selke Trophy winner as the NHL's best defensive forward for a record-breaking fifth time.
The question now is whether the Boston Bruins captain will go for a sixth.
Bergeron accepted the award in the aftermath of elbow surgery and is unsure whether he'll return for a 19th season. He turns 37 in July.
“I still think I have a lot of time in front of me, I guess, to make that decision,” Bergeron said. “I want to make sure that I take all the time that I need to make the right one.”
At 36, Bergeron led the league with 991 faceoff wins.