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Ondrej Palat scored the go-ahead goal with 41.6 seconds
remaining in the third period, lifting the two-time reigning
Stanley Cup-champion Lightning to a 3-2 victory over the
visiting New York Rangers on Sunday in Game 3 of the Eastern
Conference finals.
Tampa Bay capped a spirited rally from a two-goal deficit after
Nikita Kucherov's nifty backhanded feed found Palat deep in the
right circle. Palat's shot sailed inside the near post for his
sixth goal of the playoffs and franchise-best 10th career
game-winning goal in the postseason.
"I think, for everybody, it's important to step up and elevate
your game, mine as well," said Kucherov, who collected one goal
and two assists on Sunday.
"You're down 2-0. You're playing on home ice. You want to play
better than you did in the first two, and I think as a group we
did a good job tonight."
Captain Steven Stamkos scored and set up a goal, and Andrei
Vasilevskiy made 28 saves for the Lightning, who have won five
straight home games and trimmed the Rangers' lead to 2-1 in the
best-of-seven series. Game 4 is on Tuesday night in Tampa.
New York's Mika Zibanejad recorded a power-play goal and an
assist and Chris Kreider also tallied with the man advantage.
Igor Shesterkin turned aside 48 shots and Artemi Panarin notched
a pair of assists for the Rangers, who fell to 2-6 on the road
in the playoffs.
"It's tough, but I wouldn't say we let it get away because they
played really well," New York coach Gerard Gallant said. "Again,
we could have stole it tonight and been up 3-0."
Rangers forward Ryan Strome sustained a lower-body injury early
in the second period. He returned for one shift before
retreating to the locker room. He did not return.
"He came back for one shift and wasn't good enough. We'll know
more tomorrow," Gallant said.
New York was nursing a 2-1 lead before Corey Perry's diagonal
feed found Stamkos, whose one-timer from the top of the left
circle caromed off the crossbar and into the net at 1:22 of the
third. Stamkos' goal was his sixth of the playoffs.
"At that point you either fold up and just hope out there or you
go out and do it," Stamkos said. "I thought we pushed the pace,
and I thought we did a great job of executing the game plan in
the third."
Defenseman Adam Fox sent a diagonal feed from the point to
Zibanejad, who wired a shot from the left circle that sailed
past Vasilevskiy to open the scoring at 7:37 of the second
period. Zibanejad's 10th goal of the postseason was his
NHL-leading sixth on the power play, tying Adam Graves (1996)
for the franchise record in a single postseason.
Kreider doubled the advantage just more than two minutes later
after cleaning up a loose puck on the doorstep. Kreider's 10th
goal of these playoffs boosted his career total to 34, tying
Hall of Famer Rod Gilbert for the franchise record.
Kucherov halved the deficit at 10:50 of the second after his
blast from a sharp angle deep in the right circle handcuffed
Shesterkin. Kucherov's goal was his sixth of these playoffs and
franchise-record 50th of his career in the postseason.
"The guys stuck with it tonight," Tampa Bay forward Patrick
Maroon said. "That's just one though, so we've got to keep
battling here. It's going to be a long series."
--Field Level Media
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