Tampa Bay Lightning – New York Rangers – 3: 2 (score in series – 1-2)
In Game 3 of the series against the Rangers in the Eastern Conference Finals, Tampa Bay arrived in a difficult and unusual situation. Since Lightning unexpectedly lost 0-4 in the first round to Columbus in 2020, John Cooper’s team has consistently responded to a playoff loss with their own wins.
But two days ago in Game 2 in New York, the 18-game winning streak was broken and the champions of the last two seasons found themselves on a bad 0-2 winning streak. Added to the opponent’s dominance in matches, just a better Rangers game.
At Madison Square Garden, Gerard Gallan’s totems really outstripped his opponents in all components and literally destroyed him with speed, and the constant losses and cuts from Lightning players only added to the effect. Also, the coaching work was wonderfully done. Gallan clearly tasked his team with throwing Andrey Vasilevsky under a pancake on horseback—the relatively weak spot of the two-time Vezina Trophy winner (an award for the season’s best goalkeeper) and Conn Smythe Trophy (NHL) holder. playoff MVP). And Kid-line (Kakko – Lafrenier – Hitil), who tortured Tampa, began all his shifts in another half of the site.
The situation changed in the third game. First, Amalie Arena traditionally puts the strongest pressure on blitz opponents. Second, after a two-game unsuccessful experience of patience in Tampa, New York, he decided to dictate the conditions on the pitch and spend most of his time in someone else’s offensive zone.
Third, coach John Cooper also worked and took the home advantage of late position links to replace his third ring under the crazy trio of Chris Kreider – Mika Zibanejad – Frank Vatrano.
Brandon Hagel, Anthony Cirelli and Alex Killorn gave the necessary energy and tied the first three of the Blueshirts hand and foot. At the beginning of the series that vaguely started in New York, Vasilevsky played great this time. “Tampa” was twice the opponent’s offensive line, fired at least 15 shots per half, and was overall dominant (40-21 on target shots in even compositions).
In “Lightning” he acted quite aggressively. So, Nikita Kucherov loaded a stick in the face of Artemy Panarin, after which a mass fight began on the ice. Fortunately, the Rangers striker was not cut and Kucherov was ejected for just two minutes.
But despite all its advantages, Lightning can still lose. And they were as close as possible. Yep, Rangers didn’t do well in equal compositions this time around, but the perfect majority went nowhere. They were pardoned when Kucherov hit Panarin in the face with a stick in the first period. In the second, however, they were penalized twice for lightning fouls against Igor Shesterkin and took the lead with a score of 2:0.
The New Yorkers’ first special brigade held two sample rallies in two minutes, defeating first Zibanejad and then Kreider Vasilevsky. At the same time, Zibanejad and Adam Fox provided one assist each, and Artemi Panarin assisted in both goals.
As a result, the Lightnings found themselves in the middle of game three in a position where their dreams were shattered for the first triple hole (three Stanley Cups in a row) since the Islanders were nearly destroyed in the ’80s: 0-2. Match with 0-2 in the series.
After the end of the meeting, Cooper said that before their titles, his team would not find a way to return. Captain Steven Stamkos also said a lot about it in an interview he gave in the locker room. The main distinguishing feature of the current “Tampa” is calmness in any situation. The team just did its job and pushed it to the end. This has borne fruit.
The sacking of Jacob Truba at Ondrej Palata helped a lot, which happened right after the Rangers’ second puck. Kucherov in the majority passed, first with Stamkos, then with Viktor Hedman, making a one-touch shot into the conditionally weak zone of Shesterkin – “home” (1:2).
With such a score, Lightning hockey players, who had already broken the Rangers goalie, who had a great season, only added, realizing that the next effective shot would restore balance to the match.
It was at the start of the third period and Truba helped out again, this time fouling Cirelli.
The draw turned out classic and fast – from the entrance to the zone. Kucherov dragged the puck there from the right, then left Corey Perry behind, who was instantly transferred to the left rim of the confrontation under the ball signed by Stamkos. Even Shesterkin from the “nine” from the movement did not drag (2: 2).
Then a lot of things happened. These included Kucherov’s four-minute suspension for hitting Zibanezhad in the face with a stick after the loss (Nikita missed the blue line in the pact with a flick), while the pressure from these top New Yorkers and hosts continued for Truba.
It seemed that the game would go to overtime, as Shesterkin simply refused to agree, and Vasilevsky was dragged on the other side of the court when necessary, but …
In the last minute of regular time in Lightning’s on-the-fly attack, Hedman handed Kucherov a five kopeck stone, which didn’t shoot from a round tower, but after shifting the puck to the disturbing side, he suddenly made a further pass. right face-to-face circle to Palata, who hasn’t missed it yet – 3:2!
“Tampa Bay” both suffered and won in game three of the series, narrowing the gap to one win. In the same Amalie Arena, balance can be restored in one day, and this will be an important meeting in every way.
Nikita Kucherov has 20 (6+14) points in 14 games in this playoff. Forward identified another success package at this meeting.
Chief among them is the fact that Kucherov has a majority of 62 (17 + 45) points in the playoffs throughout his entire career, and on this indicator he is in third place, surpassing not anyone, but Alexander Ovechkin (61 points). Among current NHL players. Only Pittsburgh’s Evgeni Malkin (81) and Sidney Crosby (75) are ahead.
In addition, Kucherov was 25th in the history of the world’s strongest league in assists in the playoffs and 32nd in total points.
At the same time, with 589 saves in the two-and-a-half rounds of the playoffs, Shesterkin is second in the Rangers’ rich history in number of saves in a playoff.
He also passed Mike Rickter from the club’s final victory campaign in 1994 when he made 574 saves in four series. Now only Henrik Lundqvist is ahead, recording 683 shots in 2014.
Also notable is Adam Fox. Rangers’ leading defender and winner of last season’s James Norris Trophy, he scored 23 goals (5 goals, 18 goals) in his first 20 Stanley Cup games. Thus, he surpassed the success of the legendary Brian Leach, who is also a former player of Blueshirts. He scored 22 (8+14) points in the first 20 games.