Henrik Lundqvist pulled in Rangers’ loss to Lightning

TAMPA, Fla. — However badly J.T. Miller and Ryan McDonagh felt when they were dealt by the Rangers at the NHL trade deadline, it’s a pretty safe bet that they feel pretty good about the deal now.

Miller was on the ice but McDonagh remained out with a hand injury when their new team, the Tampa Bay Lightning, pounded their old one, 5-3, Thursday night at Amalie Arena.

The Lightning, which at 47-17-4 has the most points in the league, dominated the first two periods and chased Henrik Lundqvist in the second period after scoring four goals on 31 shots. Tampa Bay loosened its grip on the game in the third and the Rangers scored twice.

“Today, in the first two periods, you saw the difference between a bottom team and a top team,” said Mats Zuccarello, who scored one of the two goals by the Rangers in the third period. “They were better than us in every aspect of the game. And that’s just how it is.”

“That’s the hardest a team’s come at us all year long,” Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said. “They came at us with speed and skill; we had a real hard time following the pace. There’s no doubt they dominated us, but I thought in the second half of the game, we battled and executed better — a combination of us playing a little bit better, obviously, and them maybe taking their foot off the gas a little bit.”

Tampa Bay took the first 15 shots of the game, and the Rangers’ first shot came with 9:07 left in the first period. The shots were 20-1 after 15 minutes and 21-5 at the first intermission.

Anthony Cirelli’s tip-in at 1:53 of the second made it 3-0 before Ryan Spooner banged in the rebound of Kevin Hayes’ shot at 7:10.

But the Lightning wasn’t fazed, and little more than five minutes later, Tampa Bay scored again and chased Lundqvist.

Lundqvist went behind the net to play the puck but got trapped there when Cirelli picked his pocket and took the puck away, setting up Chris Kunitz for a shot at an empty net. Vigneault replaced Lundqvist with Alexandar Georgiev, who allowed one goal on 14 shots.

“He’d already seen over 30 shots in a little more than half the game, and that, combined with trying to change, a little bit, the momentum and the pace there,’’ Vigneault said of the goalie change. “But [Lundqvist] had made some unreal saves and kept us in there for quite some time.’’

The Rangers lost forward Chris Kreider in the first period for the rest of the game. Vigneault said Kreider took a hit to the head, and though he passed all of the tests, the team decided to keep him out as a precaution.

Kreider returned to the lineup in late February after missing 24 games with a blood clot that required rib resection surgery.

Notes & quotes: Miller, who went to the Lightning along with McDonagh in exchange for Vladislav Namestnikov, prospects Libor Hajek and Brett Howden and a pair of draft picks, including a first-rounder in this year’s draft, had a relatively quiet night, scoring no points . . . Mika Zibanejad returned after missing Tuesday’s 3-0 loss to the Winnipeg Jets with what he said probably was some kind of food poisoning. Zibanejad said he got ill Monday night but was feeling better and was able to eat by Wednesday . . . D Kevin Shattenkirk, who has missed the past 21 games after surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee, made the trip and took part in the morning skate. Vigneault would not give any sort of expected time for Shattenkirk’s return, other than to say it will be soon . . . Tampa Bay, which had played in six straight overtime games, fell one short of the NHL record . . . Smithtown native Rob O’Gara got his first NHL point with an assist on Hayes’ third-period goal.

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

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.