Surprise! Rangers have 2-0 lead over two-time defending champs
NEW YORK » Raise your hand if you had the New York Rangers coming out of the first two games at Madison Square Garden with a 2-0 series lead in the Eastern Conference Final.
There don’t seem to be a lot of hands up.
The Blueshirts proved that Wednesday’s win in the opener was no fluke, backing it up with a 3-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 2 on Friday night which ended their streak of 17 straight postseason victories following a loss within a playoff year, and snapped an NHL-record 60 consecutive postseason games without backto-back defeats, dating back to a first round sweep in
2019 at the hands of the Columbus Blue Jackets.
The two-time defending Stanley Cup Champions aren’t rattled, however, not just yet, as the series now shifts back to Tampa Bay for Games 3 and 4 starting on Sunday.
“At some point, you might lose two in a row in the playoffs,” said Lightning head coach Jon Cooper. “The fact that we haven’t for how many years is remarkable, so we could take a second here and say, ‘Hell of a job, boys,’ but for the most part, streaks do come to an end and unfortunately it came to an end tonight. Did it knock us out of the playoffs? It did not. Do we have a hill to climb? No question. I’d don’t think I’d be Captain Obvious saying that. But we do have better in us.”
Just as the Lightning weren’t getting too low after being in uncharted waters, the Rangers — who used goals from K’Andre Miller, Kaapo Kakko and Mika Zibanejad to take their first two-game series lead of the postseason — weren’t exactly giddy despite their newfound and perhaps unexpected circumstances of their own.
“I say it all the time, it’s a huge game for us and a huge win for us, but we just get ready for the next one,” said Rangers head coach Gerard Gallant. “It’s in the past, behind us. We know what we’re doing playing a real good team like Tampa. To play the way we played the last two games, that’s the way we’re going to have play to win this series. We want to battle hard, we want to compete hard. We’ve been tough out so far, and the guys have to rally around that. I think we’re a good hockey team, we’ve played great hockey in the playoffs, and we find ways to win hockey games. But, the next game is the most important one now. This one’s over, and it’s a good feeling, but the next one is
the big one.”
New York will need a big, early push once the games shift to Amelie Arena, and the Lightning, even despite the loss, are already starting to feel the pendulum shifting back their way heading back home after a strong showing in the third period, nearly tying the game in the dying seconds after Nick Paul’s goal with Andrei Vasilevskiy pulled for an extra attacker cut it
to a 3-2 game.
“The way we have to start a game is the way we played that third period,” said Lightning forward Corey Perry.” “We’ve got a little bit of momentum, and we see what works and what doesn’t, and you have to remember that going home. You’ve got to win your games at home. They did that and we’ve got to go home and take care of business.”