Shesterkin brilliant but couldn’t save Rangers

The Rangers’ resilient run is over. A brilliant Igor Shesterkin could not stave off elimination on Saturday night. He didn’t receive enough help from the skaters in front of him in a 2-1 Tampa Bay Game 6 win as the Lightning take this Eastern Conference Final series, four games to two.

The Rangers dropped four straight after going up 2-0 in the series with two victories at home. They have fallen short of their first Stanley Cup Final appearance since 2014.

Frank Vatrano’s game-tying power-play goal 13:07 into the third period offered one last gasp from Gerard Gallant’s never-saydie group, creating a 1-1 tie that the Blueshirts frankly did not deserve.

But Steven Stamkos answered 19 seconds later on a breakaway, with his second goal of the night, to put Tampa up and away. Stamkos got behind Jacob Trouba and received a pretty pass from Nikita Kucherov to generate the pivotal chance.

It was only fitting that Shesterkin made the initial save with his glove, only to lose a fluky rebound off Stamkos’ left hip and into the back of the net.

A Rangers team that had entered 5-0 in elimination games this playoffs, that had overcome 3-2 deficits in their first two series against the Pittsburgh Penguins and Carolina Hurricanes, ran out of bounces to create.

“You got to give them credit: That’s a heck of a team over there and they deserved the first two,” Stamkos told ESPN of the Rangers. “We just stuck with it. There’s no panic on this team.”

Top Rangers center Mika Zibanejad, ineffective for most of the night, put the final shot on Andre Vasilevskiy’s right pad from the left circle with Shesterkin pulled for the extra skater in the final seconds. But it was too little, too late.

The Lightning advance to take on the Colorado Avalanche in the Stanley Cup Final, in search of their third straight championship. Tampa now stands alone in third place all-time for most consecutive playoff series won at 11 across the past three seasons.

Only the Islanders (19 series from 198084) and Montreal Canadiens (13 series from 1976-80) have won more in a row in the history of the NHL.

Jon Cooper’s Lightning snapped a tie with the Canadiens’ 10 from 1956-60.

Shesterkin stopped Brandon Hagel twice on the doorstep in the third period. He made a habit of denying breakaways for a full 60 minutes, with the Rangers surrendering Grade-A chances to Tampa all night.

The Rangers ended the series scoring only one even-strength goal in the final four games of the series, though. They didn’t test Vasilevskiy (20 saves) too seriously until the third period. The Lightning goaltender made a terrific stop on Andrew Copp in front in the final frame.

Copp did win the faceoff draw that led to Vatrano’s one-timer under a sliding Alex Killorn and over Vasilevskiy’s left pad. But they needed more than one goal to defeat the two-time reigning Stanley Cup champions.

Shesterkin’s lone blemish through 40 minutes came when Stamkos’ 48-foot wrist shot slipped over his right pad and under his blocker at 10:43 of the second period for a 1-0 Lightning lead.

And that only happened after hobbled second-line center Ryan Strome didn’t challenge Stamkos in the neutral zone, gaining speed before firing his shot under Ryan Lindgren’s stick.

Strome would sit the entire third period, ruled out with a lower body injury.

The 1-0 Lightning lead felt worse than the score. The game was only still within reach because of the Rangers’ all-world goalie.

Shesterkin made five stops on shots from point-blank range in the second period alone, denying Anthony Cirelli and Nikita Kucherov with his left pad and glove, stopping Pat Maroon with his right pad, and stoning Ondrej Palat and Alex Killorn bearing down on a scoreless Tampa power play.

Lightning top defenseman Victor Hedman left the ice midway through the period after taking an Alexis Lafreniere hit to the chin, but the Rangers weren’t able to capitalize in his absence.