Rangers dominate Lightning in blowout Game 1 win at Garden
These Rangers are so confident in themselves, they don’t fear anybody. Not even the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions.
Two nights after outlasting the Carolina Hurricanes to win a Game 7 on the road and advance to the Eastern Conference Final, the Rangers took on the Tampa Bay Lightning, the reigning champs, in Game 1 of the series at Madison Square Garden, and the Rangers blew out the Lightning, 6-2, to take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.
“We believe in the group that we have,’’ Rangers center Mika Zibanejad said. “And when we play the way we want to, I think we’re giving ourselves the best chance to win. And that’s what we did tonight.’’
Red-hot Filip Chytil scored two more goals — he has five in the last three games and seven in these playoffs — and Zibanejad, Chris Kreider, Frank Vatrano and Artemi Panarin all scored for the Rangers, who won Game 1 of a series for the first time this spring. In fact, it is the first time the Rangers have had a lead in any of the three series they’ve played.
Game 2 will be Friday at 8 p.m. at the Garden.
The much-anticipated goalie duel between the Rangers’ Igor Shesterkin and Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy never really materialized because the Rangers made Vasilevskiy — generally regarded as the best goalie in the world the last few years — look relatively ordinary. He allowed six goals on 34 shots.
Shesterkin, a finalist for the Hart Trophy as the NHL’s Most Valuable Player, and for the Vezina Trophy as the league’s top goalie, was his usual brilliant self in making 37 saves for the third straight game. And by the end of the night, the fans in the Garden were serenading Vasilevskiy with chants of “Andrei, Andrei,’’ and, “Igor’s better!’’
The Lightning hadn’t played since May 23 when they completed their sweep of Florida. The Rangers, meanwhile, were playing their 15th game in 30 days, and coach Gerard Gallant thinks that explained why they looked so sharp.
“Our team just kept going,’’ Gallant said. “We get a day off, we play a game, and it really looked good for us tonight. And obviously, they were a little bit rusty tonight. They weren’t the same [after having] nine days off. So it makes a difference.’’
The Rangers grabbed an early 1-0 lead, courtesy of Kreider’s ninth goal of the playoffs, at 1:11 of the opening period.
Vatrano took a hit at the red line from Tampa Bay defenseman Ryan McDonagh, the former Rangers captain, but managed to move the puck past McDonagh into the Lightning zone, where Zibanejad got to it first. Zibanejad faked a shot, then sent a cross-ice pass to a wide-open Kreider, who fired a shot inside the near post before Vasilevskiy could get across.
Steven Stamkos blasted a one-timer by Shesterkin at 7:18 to tie it 1-1. And it looked at that point as if the Lightning had shaken off whatever rust they might have been experiencing.
Vatrano beat Vasilevskiy with a long-range wrist shot to put the Rangers ahead, 2-1, at 7:50 of the second period, but Tampa Bay tied it again when Ondrej Palat drove the net and backhanded in the rebound of a Stamkos shot at 8:32.
But then Chytil grabbed control of the game.
The 22-year-old Czech, the center of the Rangers’ Kid Line, between Alexis Lafrenière and Kaapo Kakko, scored his first goal at 10:09 of the second period, popping up to the top of the slot to get open for a pass from behind the net by Kakko and whipping a one-timer past Vasilevskiy’s glove.
Then, after Adam Fox leaped at the blue line to glove down a puck and keep it in the zone, Fox passed to Lafrenière, who went cross-ice to K’Andre Miller, who went back across the ice to find Chytil wide open in the right circle. Another Chytil one-timer beat Vasilevskiy on the glove side again, and the Rangers were ahead 4-2.
Thirty seconds into the third period, Panarin converted a two-on-one pass from Andrew Copp to make it 5-2, for the Rangers, and Zibanejad made it 6-2 with his eighth goal of the playoffs, on the power play at 6:06.
“It’s obviously nice for the confidence to score some goals,’’ Zibanejad said, when asked about the team’s offensive outburst. “But . . . it’s still just 1-0. It’s a new game on Friday.’’
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
