TAMPA, Fla. — Nikita Kucherov scored on a breakaway and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 33 saves Tuesday night time to assist the Lightning shut down the Rangers, 4-1, and even the Eastern Conference finals at two video games apiece.
Kucherov took a move from Ondrej Palat in the center of the ice, skated towards Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin and put the puck by him to give Tampa Bay a two-goal lead simply over 13 minutes into the second interval.
Pat Maroon and Steven Stamkos additionally beat Shesterkin, whereas Palat added an empty-net objective for the Lightning, who’ve rebounded from shedding the first two video games of the collection at Madison Square Garden to preserve their bid to develop into the first crew in practically 40 years to win three consecutive Stanley Cup titles alive.
Game 5 is Thursday night time in New York, the place the Rangers gained Games 1 and a couple of and are 8-1 this postseason.
Vasilevskiy stopped 28 of 30 photographs to win Game 3 and was even higher Tuesday, when he prolonged a shutout streak to practically 67 minutes earlier than Artemi Panarin scored on the energy play 16 minutes 27 seconds into the third interval.
Until Vasilevskiy’s bid for a shutout ended, the Rangers hadn’t scored since Chris Kreider’s power-play objective put them forward 2-0 at 9:44 of the second interval in Game 3.
It has been all Tampa Bay since then, with Kucherov and Stamkos scoring to wipe out the Game 3 deficit earlier than Palat’s game-winner in the ultimate minute.
The Lightning began sooner Tuesday night time, scoring on Maroon’s rebound simply 2:38 into the recreation.
It was the third objective of the playoffs for Maroon, 34, a fourth-line ahead who’s chasing a fourth consecutive Stanley Cup title after profitable with St. Louis in 2019 after which Tampa Bay in 2020 and 2021.
Stamkos’s objective constructed the lead to 3-0 early in the third interval. Palat’s objective with 8.7 seconds remaining gave him a three-point night time.
Shesterkin, who confronted 51 photographs in Game 3, stopped 27 of 30 photographs Tuesday.
The Rangers performed with out ahead Ryan Strome, who has a lower-body damage and was scratched after skating in pregame warmups. He was injured Sunday, when he exited in the second interval after enjoying solely a little bit over seven minutes. Rangers ahead Filip Chytil left simply previous the midpoint of the second interval on Tuesday after successful by Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman. He missed the remainder of the recreation with an upper-body damage.
The Lightning performed for the seventh straight recreation with out ahead Brayden Point, who has been out of the lineup since struggling a lower-body damage throughout Game 7 of Tampa Bay’s first-round victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs.
