NHL
TAMPA, Fla. — The potential playoff preview that was this closing regular-season matchup between the Rangers and Lightning was as entertaining because it will get.
And if the season ended Thursday evening, there may be seven extra on the horizon.
In an empty-net objective abetted 6-3 loss at Amalie Area, the Rangers, who have been denied a bid to the Stanley Cup Remaining by the Lightning simply two seasons in the past, have been reminded that they won’t solely have their palms full in the event that they do meet Tampa Bay within the first spherical however it’s going to take their best possible in the event that they hope to advance.
Each groups could not have been at full energy, however each groups performed full tilt with their very own respective relentless stretches.
It was the best-on-best in objective, with the Rangers’ Igor Shesterkin versus the Lightning’s Andrei Vasilevskiy.
The star energy was on full show. There was clear animosity. It got here all the way down to the third interval.
“Didn’t come out sturdy,” Jimmy Vesey stated of the ultimate body. “We weren’t pleased with the final 10 minutes of the second and wanted a push to begin the third. We bought the objective, however after that, I didn’t suppose we had sufficient sustained time in there.
“Type of a very good lesson for us going ahead right here. The playoff video games have a variety of momentum swings and we’ve bought to be taught to handle that.”
After Jack Roslovic scored his first objective as a Ranger to interrupt a 2-2 tie lower than two minutes into the ultimate body, the Lightning scored 4 unanswered to safe their first win over the Rangers of the common season.
Tampa Bay’s star gamers took over the sport and the Blueshirts solely countered with self-inflicted errors.
Brayden Level, who evened the rating at three-all, led the way in which for the Lightning with a hat trick and an eye-popping six-point effort, whereas Nikita Kucherov posted a five-point evening.
Captain Steven Stamkos additionally netted the game-winner with the lone power-play objective of the competition to assist in giving Tampa Bay a four-point cushion on the Islanders within the East’s first wild-card spot.
“They’ve bought a pair actually harmful gamers on the opposite facet and so they damage us,” head coach Peter Laviolette stated.
Regardless of constructing a 2-0 lead with a robust opening interval, the Rangers slipped considerably within the second after dropping Mika Zibanejad with simply over 8 ½ minutes remaining earlier than the second intermission.
Zibanejad took a puck to the face on a sequence within the nook that despatched the Swedish middle dashing to the locker room whereas holding his mouth. He missed the rest of the second interval, however Zibanejad returned for the beginning of the ultimate body carrying a full face protect.
Tampa Bay tilted the ice in its favor, producing vital zone time and contesting on puck battles that the Rangers largely gained by means of the primary 20 minutes. The temporary lack of Zibanejad clearly messed with the move of the Rangers’ recreation.
It solely spiraled from there, with a Jonny Brodzinski turnover igniting the Lightning’s push.
Blowing an early 2-0 result in the Lightning had shades of the 2022 playoffs to it.
The Rangers fumbled a two-game lead over them in that Japanese Convention Remaining, too, giving up a 2-0 edge in Recreation 3 en path to 4 straight losses.
This matchup may find yourself being the last word hurdle for the Rangers, who nonetheless must learn to put Tampa Bay away two years later.
“To be sincere, I believed that they had a variety of bother with us by means of half-hour,” Vesey stated. “We type of began turning some pucks over and feeding their transition and their high-end guys made a pair performs. I simply thought the turnovers on the finish of the second is the place the momentum began to show.”
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