Grabner’s hat trick helps Blueshirts Light up scoreboard

EARLY ON Sunday night, as the shots and scoring chances kept coming, Lightning goalie Ben Bishop held his ground. He made save after save, thwarting the Rangers’ onslaught of opportunities in a tremendous display.

When the first period ended, the Blueshirts had totaled 16 shots without finding the back of the net. But it was only a matter of time before their dominant offensive play translated into goals.

For Bishop, the shutout lasted less than five minutes into the second period. Then the floodgates opened, largely because of defensive lapses from his teammates. Starting with Rick Nash’s breakaway goal with 15:16 remaining in the period, the Rangers scored three times in 2:20, building a lead they never relinquished in a 6-1 win over Tampa at the Garden.

J.T. Miller added a fourth second-period goal with 1:50 remaining. And winger Michael Grabner scored twice in the final period to cap off his third career hat trick.

“We just played a solid, structured game,” Grabner said. “We forced them into mistakes and used our speed to go the other way. And then we capitalized on their mistakes.”

The Rangers improve to 6-3-0 on the season. Antti Raanta — starting in net in place of Henrik Lundqvist as the Blueshirts began a stretch of five games in eight days — made 31 saves in his second appearance this season, both victories.

Raanta carried a shutout deep into the third period but surrendered a fluky power-play goal with less than four minutes remaining.

“Sometimes those go in and sometimes not. And sometimes you get a shutout and sometimes you don’t,” Raanta said. “But I felt really good for the whole 60 minutes, so even though there was one goal, it was still a good game for me.”

After Bishop’s impressive first period, the Blueshirts needed a stroke of luck to break the scoreless tie.

The Lightning committed a sloppy giveaway trying to advance into their offensive zone. Defenseman Nick Holden passed ahead to Nash, who collected on a clear breakaway and finished into the top corner past Bishop’s left shoulder. Less than two minutes later, the Rangers struck again, this time breaking down the Tampa defense with some smooth puck movement. Centerman Kevin Hayes curled to his left near the blue line before firing a pass across the zone to defenseman Brady Skjei.

Skjei settled it and quickly slid a pass back to the right side to Grabner, who buried his shot into an open net. Bishop had no chance at recovering.

Another 24 seconds passed before the Rangers added to their lead. Lightning defenseman Braydon Coburn mishandled a pass in his own zone, letting the puck slide past his stick and careen off the boards. Nash swooped in and took possession, skating through the right faceoff circle before dropping off a pass to Jimmy Vesey.

Vesey slotted a wrist shot into the bottom left corner to make it 3-0. It was the rookie’s fifth goal this season.

The Rangers’ final score of the breakout second period came from Miller with less than two minutes remaining. Hayes carried the puck into the offensive zone and snapped a shot at Bishop, who chested it down. But Miller was crashing the net and put away the rebound for his third goal of the season.

“The way we’ve been playing and the way we played in the first, even though it was a 0-0 game, we had so many quality chances,” coach Alain Vigneault said. “There’s no doubt that the speed and the pace was a factor in tonight’s game.”

Grabner added his second goal of the game on a breakaway with 10:58 remaining in regulation. Then he made it 6-0 with just over five minutes left, finishing off a spinning feed from Hayes in the offensive zone.

“We didn’t get anything going in the first,” Grabner said. “But in the second, once a couple goals went in, we got some confidence and just went from there.”