Following a triple overtime the night before between the Anaheim Ducks and the Chicago Blackhawks, which was 3 minutes short of playing 2 full games, the Tampa Bay Lightning came back from a 2-0 deficit to beat the New York Rangers in OT. Nikita Kucherov scored the overtime game-winning goal, his second OT goal and third game-winner of the playoffs.
In the last two games with the Tampa Bay Lightning, the New York Rangers have given up 12 goals. Steven Stamkos scored the Bolts’ first goal of the game midway through the first period, giving him goals in back-to-back games. The team captain was in a bit of a slump and that now seems to be of a distant past.
Another feat of the game was center Tyler Johnson tying the Lightning playoff record for most goals in a playoff season (Fedotenko & Richards in 2004), by scoring his his League-leading 12th goal of the postseason.
Lightning left wing, Ondrej Palat scored two of the Bolts’ 6 goals last night, bringing his postseason goal total to 6.
Alex Killorn netted the Lightning’s fifth goal of the evening late in the second period.
Johnson, Palat and Kucherov have scored 25 of the Lightning’s 47 goals in 16 playoff games, and they have seemingly discovered an extra couple of gears against the Rangers’ back line and Rangers goalie Lundqvist. Lundqvist had a save percentage of .944 entering this series and it is now down to a grim .926.
You’ve got two of the highest scoring teams in the league playing one another right now and Tampa Bay’s momentum proved to have more acceleration than the pace of the Rangers. The Lightning need a repeat of that Friday night to keep their lead in this series.
This article appears in May 21-27, 2015.