The Tampa Bay Lightning were short-handed all night Thursday, so it was nearly fitting that the winning goal with 1:05 left would come short-handed with Valtteri Filppula scoring to beat the NY Rangers 2-1 at Amalie Arena.
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In the first meeting between the teams since May 29, when the Lightning eliminated the Rangers in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals, 2-0, the Blueshirts’ offense never really got untracked. The Rangers did not register a shot on goal versus the Lightning’s Ben Bishop, who was a ideal 8-0 in his career against NY, till the 13:20 mark.
The Rangers fell one victory short, therefore, of tying the franchise record 10-game winning streak, held by the 1939-40 Stanley Cup winning Rangers and Rod Gilbert’s 1972-73 crew. The Lightning possessed one of the highest scoring teams in the game a season ago but goals have been scarce in losing nine of 12. The Rangers won Game 6 by a 7-3 score and Game 4 by a 5-1 margin. Coach Jon Cooper and his staff integrated several recent callups from the AHL into the lineup and the Lightning shook off a late goal by Dominic Moore that briefly tied the score. “We’ve got to be ready to go”.
ABOUT THE LIGHTNING (8-9-3): Center Tyler Johnson (10 points) and versatile forward Cedric Paquette are expected to miss Thursday’s game with upper-body injuries while wings Ryan Callahan (lower body) and Jonathan Drouin (undisclosed) could also be out. Derick Brassard has three points (two goals) in the last three games and rookie Oscar Lindberg boasts seven goals, but veteran Rick Nash (two goals) is overdue for a hot streak. As of this morning, there are a total of five forwards with injuries ranging from Day-to-Day to a potential 3-5 weeks.
The two teams played a defensive game, careful even to avoid penalties, with each managing only a single power play in the first two periods.
“At the end of the night, this game is about two plays with the puck, two mistakes that we made”, coach Alain Vigneault said.
Keith Yandle, trying to make a long clearing pass from the goal line, instead had the puck intercepted by Filppula at the Rangers’ blue line.
It wasn’t pretty but the Tampa Bay Lightning will take it. That’s all they can do at this point of the season.
Nikita Kucherov almost made it 2-0 on the next shift, but Lundqvist stopped his breakaway shot.
However, Lundqvist would keep the Rangers in the game, making key stops in the second period. Former Ranger Anton Stralman, diving across the crease to the right post, prevented Mats Zuccarello’s shot from going in.
Lundqvist kept the Rangers within one with a pad save on Braydon Coburn during the final minute of the second.
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For only the second time this season, the Lightning emerged from the opening period with a lead. But the pass was too hard and bounced off McDonagh and to Filppula, who started the rush up ice with J.T. Brown, an irritant to the Rangers all game. Moore ended a 13-game goal drought with his second this season….
