The Tampa Bay Lightning weren’t necessarily the better team on Monday night in Game Two of their Eastern Conference Final series with the New York Rangers, but they converted on their opportunities and received stellar goaltending from Ben Bishop. The result of that combination was a 6-2 win. As a result of the split at Madison Square Garden, Tampa Bay now holds home-ice advantage in this series.
While the Rangers are likely disappointed with the result and final score in Game Two, they shouldn’t be too upset with their process. For many stretches of play, they had the Bolts on the ropes. Towards the end of the second period particularly, the ice was tilted heavily in New York’s direction. That didn’t seem to matter much, however, as Bishop was positively phenomenal in the Tampa net. Just as he did against Carey Price in a number of games during the second round, the Lightning’s goaltender beat Henrik Lundqvist in the goalie battle on Monday night. His play, along with a completely unsustainable shooting percentage, deserve credit for the victory.
One of the things that allowed Tampa Bay to survive New York’s barrage was a quick start. Not only did they get on the board early, but they did so in spectacular fashion. With his team in the middle of a five-on-three kill, Tyler Johnson took advantage of a Marty St. Louis gaffe and broke in alone on Lundqvist. Johnson’s original attempt was stopped, but the puck was knocked into the net by a sprawling St. Louis. Johnson was credited with his first of the night to make it 1-0, but the goal really belonged to the former Lightning captain. Even while wearing another team’s jersey, St. Louis continues to score big playoff goals for the Bolts.
About three minutes later, the Rangers were given another power play opportunity. There was no shorthanded goal for Tampa that time around, and New York managed to pot a tally of their own. Chris Kreider, battling in the crease, knocked the puck past Bishop to knot things at one.
The special teams battle wasn’t done there, as the officials continued to make their presence felt as the evening (and first period specifically) moved along. Johnson, this time on a power play, scored his second of the night to make it 2-1 at 11:15 of the first. Assisted by Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov, Johnson potted his 10th of the postseason with an amazing shot.
That 2-1 lead turned into a 3-1 lead at 8:17 of the second period, when Johnson completed his hat trick. His 11th of the playoffs came as he and his ‘triplet’ pals took advantage of a Marc Staal tumble. They broke in on Lundqvist, and eventually banged the puck over the goal line. It wasn’t a particularly pretty goal, but it counted just the same.
Derek Stepan cut the Lightning lead to 3-2 when he scored a power play goal at 14:17 of the middle frame. Another ugly goal, his fifth of the postseason came as he simply banked the puck off a Lightning defender from behind the net. It was reminiscent of the bounce that resulted in Tampa’s Game One loss, but this one didn’t come back to bite them.
With only one goal separating the two squads through two periods, there was still plenty of time left to decide the contest. That was until the Lightning stepped on the throat of a New York team that just isn’t used to suffering blowout losses. It started with Alex Killorn’s fourth of the playoffs, continued with Steven Stamkos’s fourth of the playoffs, and culminated with Killorn’s fifth. The three-goal third period turned a tight, one-goal game into a big win for Tampa Bay.
As mentioned earlier in the blog, it wasn’t an overly dominant performance from Tampa in any area other than the score. New York was the better team for large portions of the game, but the Bolts didn’t break. They bent, but their goaltender bailed them out. Then, when opportunity knocked, they answered. Were they more invested in this game than they were in the first game? Maybe. Were they the recipient of some luck? Sure. Were their top players their top players? Absolutely. There are different ways to win in the National Hockey League - this way works sometimes!
Against the league’s top regular season team, it would be hard for the Lightning to ask for anything more than the split they earned with this Game Two victory. Now, with the series heading back to the friendly confines of Amalie Arena, the Bolts have home-ice advantage. This two-game stretch in New York has to be considered a success, even if it wasn’t always pretty. At this time of year, wins are all that matters. The fact of the matter is that nobody is going to look back and ask how they won Game Two. They did, and that’s what counts.
With this victory in their back pocket, the goal now is to go back to Tampa and hold serve. It all starts in Game Three, which will take place on Wednesday night. Enjoy this win tonight, Bolts Nation. It'll be time to get back to business soon.
As always, thanks for reading.
Michael Stuart has been the Tampa Bay Lightning writer for HockeyBuzz since 2012. Visit his archive to read more or follow him on Twitter.