Now, Lightning is facing the storm THIS IS 2 GOOD TO BE TRUE!
Turns out, the Rangers don’t need to be all that desperate to be highly effective. Playing with the luxury of a series lead for the first time this spring, they demonstrated no letdown, no sleepwalking, during a 3-2 victory in Game 2. They were focused, relentless. As a result, the Rangers head to Tampa Bay with a solid 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference finals, and with good reason to believe this really could be a very special spring.
The loss snapped an 18-game winning streak for the Lightning in playoff games that followed losses, pouring a little ice water on the theory that teams like Tampa Bay and the Rangers always perform better when their backs are up against the boards.
It certainly didn’t look that way Friday night for the Lightning, who found themselves pinned into the defensive zone, while the Rangers set up odd-man chances, screens, and tip-ins in front of a besieged, bewildered Andrei Vasilevskiy. The Rangers reversed an early deficit in the first period with goals from K’Andre Miller and Kaapo Kakko, then did not sit back and enjoy their handiwork. Mika Zibanejad sealed the victory with a shot above Vasilevskiy’s blocker from the left circle.
The Lightning hung on for dear life much of the time, and the victory margin might have been considerably greater.
There was a lot of pre-game talk about Tampa Bay’s 18-game, boomerang record in the playoffs. If there really is such a thing as the desperation factor, then the Lightning will certainly own that advantage Sunday in Tampa Bay.
Not everybody buys into that hypothesis, however.
“Who wants it more?” You’ve heard coaches and parents scream that mantra from the sidelines at every level of youth, college, and professional games, in every sport. Yet social scientists remain skeptical about such a motivational factor, even in decisive games.
Studies show that teams that face elimination, generally get eliminated. A thorough examination of the 1,930 NBA playoff games, published by Dr. Yair Galily of the Interdisciplinary Center in Israel, found that home teams with an expected 65% chance of winning, won only 55% of the time when facing elimination. For road teams facing elimination, their odds of success were reduced to only 26%.
“The results from our analysis are relevant to the workforce and many other domains,” Galily told Frontiers.com. “We suggest that leaders and managers should refrain from deliberately building high-pressure environments to try to enhance performance in their subordinates. They should adopt the ‘just do it and enjoy’ path.’”
The Lightning is not enjoying this series and definitely not getting much d o n e . Jon Cooper was confident his team would adjust after the Game 1 disappointment, as it had so many times before these past two years.
“We as a group are pretty good at self-correcting and the guys take losses personal,” Jon Cooper said. Cooper juggled his lines, shortened his lineups, to no avail. While the Lightning provided tighter coverage on Zibanejad, Adam Fox skated circles around Tampa Bay, driving the Lightning crazy with breakouts, pullups, and set-up passes.
“We’re making uncharacteristic plays, chasing the game and making turnovers,” Steven Stamkos told ESPN. “We got here because of the system that we played, so let’s get back to it.”
The signs look very good for the Rangers. They have now beaten Tampa Bay in all five meetings, including the regular season, and have won eight straight playoff games at the Garden. They only need to win two more games at home to win this series.
Vasilevskiy has not looked at all like his old, reliable self. He is having trouble locating and smothering the puck. Igor Shesterkin, however, has been just fine.
It is definitely an anxious time for Cooper’s players, who now find themselves working on a two-game losing streak in the playoffs, unknown territory. Gerard Gallant won’t pay attention to any of that. He still expects a long and winding series.
“It doesn’t make a difference, how you get to seven games,” he said. “You move on and play the game.”
Reigning Norris Trophy winner Adam Fox was a dynamic force with two primary assists in Friday night’s 3-2 Game 2 win, piggybacking on an early goal by another young defenseman, K’Andre Miller.
The Rangers are halfway home to a Stanley Cup Final berth, up 2-0 in this series on the two-time Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning.
Mika Zibanejad’s blocker side snap shot off the rush 1:21 into Friday’s third period created important breathing room for a 3-1 lead and turned out to be the game winner.
And it happened after Chris Kreider took the puck from Nikita Kucherov in the neutral zone, and the swift-skating Fox wheeled back into the offensive zone, looking like a forward, to slide a friendly pass to the top-line center.
Fox was taking on Lightning skaters one-on-one all night with the puck on his stick and beating them, including a dirty move past Tampa center Nick Paul on the shift that produced Kaapo Kakko’s go-ahead goal at 17:32 of the first period on Fox’s terrific primary assist.
He already has the pedigree and the trophy to prove it, but Fox, 24, displayed a rare complete level of hockey from a defenseman on Friday night, doing his job in the Rangers’ own zone and taking charge up ice, as well.
He now has a seven-game point streak, with 12 points in that span.
Igor Shesterkin was excellent again, prompting more “Igor’s better!” chants directed at shaken Tampa goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy. Shesterkin’s third period save on a wide-open Pat Maroon in the low slot had the Lightning’s skaters looking to the rafters in disbelief.
The Lightning’s Paul did narrow the Rangers’ lead to 3-2 at 17:57 of the third period, receiving a Corey Perry pass alone in front of Shesterkin. And Shesterkin had to make a major stop on Steven Stamkos with 56 remaining and the extra skater on to preserve the win.
But the Rangers did it, and in the process, they snapped a streak of 18 straight Lightning wins following a playoff loss that began in 2020. The Blueshirts won despite going 0-for-4 on the power play. They now have scored eight of their nine goals this series at even strength.
A big blue line hit from Jacob
Trouba on Tampa center Anthony Cirelli in the third period also set a nastier tone for Game 3. Puck drop will be 3 p.m. Sunday in Tampa.
Stingy defense and Shesterkin ensured a scoreless second period and kept the Rangers ahead, 2-1, entering the third.
Gallant’s group didn’t allow a Tampa shot on goal for almost seven minutes between the 2:39 and 9:01 marks. The Lightning’s penalty killed snuffed out a third Ranger power play, though, and tilted the ice late in the second period after a Vasilevskiy stop on the active Kakko at 7:26.
The Lightning outshot the Rangers, 7-0, for the rest of the period, three from defenseman Mikhail Sergachev, all turned away impressively by the Rangers’ Russian goalie.
He hadn’t allowed a lack of action in the first half of the period to break his focus.
The Lightning had struck first in the game, 2:41 into the first period, on a Nikita Kucherov short side power play goal. They’d capitalized on a questionable Ryan Reaves slashing penalty.
But the Rangers roared back with goals by Miller (5:59) and Kakko (17:32) to take a 2-1 lead into the first intermission.
Miller snapped a wrist shot past Vasilevskiy’s glove from the high slot to tie the game. He scored off assists from Frank Vatrano and Chris Kreider after Lightning forward Brandon Hagel had blocked his initial shot.
It was Miller’s second goal of the playoffs and his first since Game 7 of the first round series against the Pittsburgh Penguins. He has a three-game point streak going, too.
Shesterkin then preserved the tie by robbing Steven Stamkos on a break-in with the left pad at 8:06, followed by a stop on Alex Killorn’s rebound at 8:09.
The Lightning killed off two Ranger power plays to quiet the Garden back down. But they couldn’t keep the Blueshirts from tacking on a second goal in the first.
Kakko redirected a beautiful Fox pass up into the top of Vasilevskiy’s net on the doorstep for a 2-1 lead late in the period. It was Kakko’s second goal of the playoffs and his first since Game 3 of the first round.
Fox undressed Tampa center Nick Paul with a juke to set up an Alexis Lafreniere shot on goal. Then the defenseman took a Filip Chytil feed at the left circle and slid his feed to Kakko for the finish.