Now we have a series. Today the Tampa Bay Lightning bit back against the New York Rangers and won their first game of the series. The Lightning scored 3 unanswered goals through the second and third periods to win this game.
Things started with a bit of a goalie showdown. The Lightning peppered Igor Shesterkin with 15 shots but he was ready for them. The same goes for Andrei Vasilevskiy on the other side of the ice where he stopped the Rangers’ 12 shots. The second period is when things got quite messy. There was a collection of back-to-back penalties on both sides of the ice that caused a clusterfuck of 4-on-4 to 4-on-3 – it was a mess. But, the Rangers were able to open the scoring during that. At the seven-minute mark, Mika Zibanejad got the first goal on the board during the powerplay:
Then two minutes later, on yet another powerplay, Chris Kreider tucked in the Rangers’ second goal:
The Lightning got one back on their own powerplay at the 10-minute mark but they weren’t able to tie it by the end of the period. The third period was kinder to them though as Steven Stamkos opened the period with a goal just a minute in on, you guessed it, the powerplay. The Rangers tried to get back control in the third but Ondrej Palat was able to break past them in the last minute and the Lightning walked away with the win. That puts this series at 2-1 heading into Game 4. I think the Rangers will bounce back just fine from this. It wasn’t a disastrous game for them. They had 30 shots on net, they just missed big chances to keep the game alive. Shesterkin still had an incredible game. The Lightning put up 52 shots and he stopped 49 of them. K’Andre Miller was amazing, he had some of the best shots on net, he registered 6 hits, a blocked shot, and he played 24:31. He just has a marvelous hockey IQ, I can’t wait to watch him just keep getting better. The Rangers have a day to center themselves and get back at it on Tuesday. I’m sure they’ll be just fine. They don’t need to change must, they just need to brush this off and go onto the next one.
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Featured Image: New York Rangers Twitter
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