Bolts’ Kucherov strikes in OT
EASTERN CONFERENCE: Tampa Bay takes 2-1 lead on Rangers in back-and-forth Game 3
TAMPA, Fla. — The Tampa Bay Lightning are doing what no other team has been able to do in these playoffs.
They have managed to score on the New York Rangers and Henrik Lundqvist.
Winger Nikita Kucherov cruised into the New York zone and beat Lundqvist with a wrist shot from the high slot at 3:33 of overtime to give the Lightning a 6-5 win at Amalie Arena on Wednesday night.
The Bolts now lead the Eastern Conference final 2-1.
The Rangers entered the night with seven of their nine playoff victories ending in a 2-1 score. Their defence, and Lundqvist, first started to unravel in Tampa’s 6-2 victory in Game 2 on Monday. Twelve goals on “The King” in two games? Who would have believed it?
Ondrej Palat scored his second goal of the game with 5:55 left in the third period, giving the Lightning a 5-4 lead. After accepting a pass from Nikita Nesterov near the right faceoff circle, Palat cut to the middle and waited until he had a clear lane to slide a shot past Ben Bishop.
But the Rangers’ Dan Boyle left his point position for the front of the net to bang in a loose puck with 1:56 to go, setting up overtime.
Lundqvist stopped J.T. Brown on a breakaway in the third minute of overtime.
Steven Stamkos, Tyler Johnson andAlexKillornalsoscoredforTampa. Jesper Fast had two goals for the Rangers, while Derick Brassard and Ryan McDonagh had the others.
With his team trailing by a goal entering the third, McDonagh tied the game at the 2:28 mark with the Rangers on a power play, taking a pass from Kevin Hayes and tucking his shot under the bar with Bishop down.
The Lightning outshot the Rangers 40-25. New York’s power play was 2-for-4, while Tampa scored on one of two man-advantage chances.
The Lightning swarmed the Rangers in the second half of the middle period, turning a 2-1 deficit into a 4-3 lead.
First Palat scored his fifth of the post-season after being sent in by Johnson. Less than three minutes later, the roles were reversed as Johnson worked free in front of the Rangers net to whip in a Palat pass for his 12th of the post-season (at this point, we will remind you that the NHL record for most goals in a playoff season is 19).
Killorn completed a three-goal outburst in a 6:46 span by crossing through the slot, holding onto the puck long enough to slide by Marc Staal and Boyle, then whipping a wrist shot over Lundqvist’s glove.
But just when it looked like the Rangers were falling out of it, Fast scored his second of the night 29 seconds later, tipping in a Kevin Klein shot to pull New York back to within one.
On the heels of the Game 2 loss, the Rangers promised to rebound well Wednesday.
“Every time we’ve had a bad game, we always bounce back,” Brassard said after the morning skate. “I’m not expecting anything different for tonight.”
Sure enough, Brassard opened the scoring just 62 seconds after the opening faceoff — with Tampa’s Cedric Paquette serving a penalty — by blasting a shot past Bishop on the short side.
The Lightning were caught on a horrible change almost nine minutes later and Chris Kreider took advantage by sending Fast on a breakaway. Fast faked a shot and pulled the puck on his backhand to make it 2-0. That one woke Tampa up.
Stamkos put the Lightning on the board off a broken play less than two minutes later. His nice pass sent Killorn in for a chance, but the shot attempt was disrupted by a Rangers back check. Instead it squirted to Stamkos — what is it they say about pucks following good players around the ice? — and the Bolts’ captain made no mistake.
The Lightning had a chance to tie the score three minutes before the intermission, but Lundqvist stopped Killorn on a breakaway.