TAMPA, Fla. — The Lightning dropped the first two games of the the Eastern Conference final in part because they struggled to possess the puck.
Now they’re making the Rangers chase the puck, and after holding home ice, they have evened the series at two games apiece following their 4-1 win Tuesday night at Amalie Arena.
As the series returns to Madison Square Garden for Thursday’s pivotal Game 5, the Lightning are coming off their finest defensive performance of the series. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 33 saves and for most of the night, the Lightning prevented any net front danger — limiting second-chance shots and deflections.
This wasn’t the 52-shot attack the Lightning orchestrated in Game 3. For most of the game, the Lightning were outshot and had two goals on just 15 shots through two periods. But the Lightning won by keeping the puck away from the Rangers’ top scoring threats.
Tampa Bay took an early lead on Pat Maroon’s put-back 2:38 into the game.
Maroon’s goal was set up when Pierre-Edouard Bellemare flung the puck to defenseman Zach Bogosian, who swept toward the net from the right side, turning the corner on Ryan Reaves and deking Justin Braun on his way to the net.
Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin stopped Bogosian’s shot, but Maroon swooped in from the far side and buried a rebound.
About two minutes after Brandon Hagel’s fight with Frank Vatrano, which ended with Hagel raising his hand to get the Amalie crowd going, Nikita Kucherov gave the Lightning a two-goal lead with a breakaway score.
Lightning defenseman Jan Rutta collected the puck at his own blue line, looked north and passed to Ondrej Palat. Palat circled around and flung the puck to Kucherov as he entered the offensive zone, and Kucherov beat Shesterkin five hole.
Palat notched another assist on Steven Stamkos’ third-period goal, shooting a puck on net that kicked out to Stamkos, who was parked by the left post for an easy rebound 4:56 into the period. And Palat had the empty-netter as time expired.
