Tampa Bay Lightning Defeat the New York Rangers 5-1

1. 95. 5. 23. Final

The Tampa Bay Lightning marched into Madison Square Garden and played a full sixty minute game to defeat the New York Rangers 5-1.

This game had quite a few story lines. Martin St. Louis, former Tampa Bay Lightning captain, facing his old team for the first time. Ryan Callahan, former New York Ranger captain, facing the Rangers for the first time.

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Smaller sub-plots that include a couple of other former Tampa Bay Lightning players in Dan Boyle and Dominic Moore. Former Rangers, Anton Stralman and Brian Boyle playing New York in Madison Square Garden.

And all this was before the puck even drops. Once that happened, the players had to play the game. Could New York keep up with the speed and transition game of the younger Tampa Bay Lightning? Could the younger Tampa Bay Lightning players handle the lights of the big city?

We haven’t even talked about the two world class goalies, Ben Bishop and Henrik Lundqvist. Both capable of pitching a shutout on any given night. Like I said, so many story lines.

Then the game started and it all played itself out. Speed kills. The younger, faster, Tampa Bay Lightning at times appeared to be putting on a clinic. A lesson in puck possession. Goaltender training. Advanced neutral zone defense mechanics. Forecheck 101.

The Lightning opened the scoring almost seven minutes in the first, when Nikita Kucherov on a feed from Tyler Johnson, broke away clean on a one on one against Lundqvist who never had a chance. . Ondrej Palat also assisted on the goal.

About six minutes later, on their first power play of the night, Steven Stamkos made a couple of great dekes to pass the puck to a wide open Ryan Callahan who scored to give the Bolts a two goal lead. In fact, Callahan was so open that he fanned on his first shot and still had a wide open net to put the biscuit in the basket.

At the end of the first period, the Lightning was leading two goals to nothing. They also had a seven to five shot advantage. As the period ended, Matt Carle tripped Marty St. Louis to give New York a power play they would open the second with after the intermission.

In the second period, the Tampa Bay Lightning faced their biggest challenge of the night. The period opened with the Lightning having to kill the Carle penalty. At 0:32 of the second, just like old times, Marty St. Louis fed a pass in front of a net and the puck goes in off a Lightning player’s club.

Unfortunately, for the first time in 13 years, the goal doesn’t count for the Bolts. This power play goal goes in off the stick of Jason Garrison and Marty gets credit for the goal that cuts the lead in half to 2 – 1.

Twenty seconds after that, Steven Stamkos gets called for a holding penalty and it was back on the kill for the Bolts. A little more than halfway through that kill, Alex Killorn gets called for a trip on Mats Zuccarello. Now the Rangers have a five on three.

I guess in the bright lights of the big city, penalties for the home team are easier for the referees to see. In any case, clinging to a one goal lead, down two players, the Lightning penalty kill unit comes up big. During these penalties the PK team, had to kill 2:56 of a five on four and 0:32 of a five on three in the first four minutes of the middle period.

Killing off those penalties gave the Tampa Bay Lightning momentum. They carried this the rest of the second and played most of the period in the New York zone. After stealing a pass in the neutral zone, Valtteri Filppula flipped a pass to a speeding Stamkos to give him a breakaway on Lundqvist. This wasn’t even fair, as Stamkos deked left, Henrik bit hard, then Stammer went right and tucked in the puck for the 3 – 1 lead.

A few minutes later after more relentless fore checking by the high energy line of Vladislav Namestnikov, Jonathan Drouin and Alex Killorn, it appeared Drouin scored a goal but that was waved off by the refs call of goalie interference. Replays showed Killorn did touch Lundqvist and the goal was disallowed. To make up for that, Killorn later scored from a beautiful pass from Tyler Johnson to make the score 4 to 1 as the second period ended.

In the final period, the younger Bolts continued their schooling of the older and noticeably slower Rangers. Out shooting New York 10 to 5 in the final frame and scoring goal number five when Callahan took a centering pass from Stamkos and made a nice deke on Lundqvist to make the final score 5 – 1.

The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the New York Rangers soundly in this game. That is the only story line that matters. The victory had to feel good for Ryan Callahan who scored two goals. Not to mention Brian Boyle and Anton Stralman. Coming into “the Garden” to beat the Rangers had to feel good for the entire team.

I’m not one to believe in moral victories but this was one and perhaps whatever residual positive feelings the team took from this victory carries them tomorrow night. They will face the Islanders tomorrow, puck drops at 7:00 p.m.

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