On any given night any team can bring their "A" game to the ice and defeat even the most powerful opposition. On Thursday night, the struggling New York Rangers came into AMALIE Arena, shut down the Tampa Bay Lightning, and came away with a 2-1 overtime victory.
Period One
To put it simply, the first period did not go quite the way the Lightning would have liked it. They were pretty much outperformed by the Rangers in all aspects of the game. New York had the advantage in every statistic besides face-off win percentage.
All of the hard work the Rangers put forth in the first tilt finally paid off with 1:26 left in the period. New York took advantage of a three on one opportunity as Brady Skjei and Mika Zibanejad beautifully moved the puck to eventually find Chris Kreider for his fourth goal of the season, giving the Rangers a 1-0 lead.
Superior teams tend to run a risk of falling behind struggling opposition often. It is highly unlikely that the Bolts took the Rangers lightly in first, however, New York definitely came out as the hungrier team.
Period Two
Tampa Bay was able to bounce back after the first intermission with a strong effort in the second period. By the end of the middle segment, the Bolts were able to even things up in almost every statistical category, including where it matters most.
On a New York Rangers power play 11 minutes into the period, the Lightning were able to turn the tables a put in a shorthanded tally thanks to Yanni Gourde. Gourde and Victor Hedman executed a beautiful give and go play that resulted in the score being evened up at one goal apiece.
The Lightning's ability to knot up the score before the second break in the action was absolutely crucial. After being outworked and outplayed in the first 20 minutes, the last the the Bolts needed was for something similar to take place in period two. Luckily for Tampa Bay, that did not happen and they were able to go into the third period with a clean slate of sorts.
Period Three
After both teams taking control of one period, the third period turned into a stalemate. Each team tightened up their game slightly more concerned with preventing oppositional offense than generating offense of their own.
From the first few minutes of the final regulation period, it was quite clear that this contest was likely headed to overtime and that is exactly what happened. The last place team in the Metropolitan Division had shut down the top team in the NHL, preventing their offense to get going, and forcing them into an extended contest.
Overtime
The extra five-minute period ended in quite an embarrassing fashion for the Bolts. Rangers' forward J.T. Miller pretty much skated three-fourths of the ice past ever Tampa Bay Player and scored 1:19 into overtime, giving New York a 2-1 victory.
Final Thoughts
The Lightning have been fortunate in bringing a high-powered offense to the ice each night that is not only capable of scoring a lot of goals but doing so. However, the offense can't be rolling on all cylinders every game, and "off nights" are going to happen. That was the case with their game against the Rangers. New York simply shut them down and were able to take advantage of a rare low-scoring affair against the bolts.
It is never a good feeling to lose a game, especially to a team demonstrating early season struggles such as the Rangers. However, New York still has the tools necessary to be a competitive franchise this season and they put that on display Thursday night.
The 10-2-2 Lightning will now take Friday to regroup and make the necessary adjustments so they can get back on track quickly. Tampa Bay will host the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday night where the Bolts will celebrate and honor their 2004 Stanley Cup Championship.