Rangers at Lightning
The Tampa Bay Lightning rebounded from a meek effort against the New York Rangers in the Eastern Conference final series opener with a 6-2 thrashing in Game 2 to steal home ice from the Presidents' Trophy winners. The Lightning look to ride the momentum - and the league's best home record - when they face the visiting Rangers on Wednesday in Game 3 of the best-of-seven matchup.
"In Game 1, we participated in a hockey game," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. "In Game 2, we came to win a hockey game. It was ultimately our will that was different." Tyler Johnson sparked Monday's rout with a hat trick to end New York's NHL-record streak of 15 consecutive postseason games decided by one goal. The Rangers own the league's top road record and showed their mettle by rallying from a 3-1 series deficit to eliminate Washington, but they know they cannot afford a repeat of their play in Game 2, which was termed "embarrassing" by captain Ryan McDonagh. "Ultimately, we have to crawl back and find a way to win some games in their building," the defenseman said.
TV: 8 p.m. ET, NBCSN, CBC, TVA
ABOUT THE RANGERS: Henrik Lundqvist has permitted one goal eight times during the postseason, but Game 2 marked the fifth time this season he has been victimized for at least five tallies - and three of those occasions have come against Tampa Bay. "They made us pay on some of the mistakes, especially on the power play," said Lundqvist, who had not allowed six goals in the postseason since his playoff debut in 2006. "It's going to be a tough series if we take too many penalties." Chris Kreider netted his team-high sixth goal and Derek Stepan notched his fifth - both on the power play, but Rick Nash continues to struggle in the postseason with two goals in 14 games following a career-best 42-goal campaign.
ABOUT THE LIGHTNING: Tampa Bay finally got some much-needed production from their top line as Alex Killorn scored twice and captain Steven Stamkos tallied once, but Johnson stole the show with the first playoff hat trick in franchise history to give him a postseason-leading 11 goals. Johnson, who scored 29 times during the regular season, has registered four multi-goal performances in the playoffs - and each has followed a Tampa Bay defeat. "We've seen it all season, but it seems like whenever he's in a situation that's big like this, in Madison Square Garden, conference finals, he takes it to another level," Killorn said of Johnson. "It seems like he was leading the way and we were kind of following."
OVERTIME
1. Johnson needs one point to tie the franchise single-postseason record of 17 set by Brad Richards and Ruslan Fedotenko in 2004.
2. Ex-Lightning captain Martin St. Louis notched two assists in Game 2 but has yet to tally in the playoffs for the Rangers.
3. Lightning G Ben Bishop made 35 saves in Game 2 to improve to 9-1-0 lifetime against New York.