NEW YORK — The Rangers and Lightning are likely to finish third in the NHL’s Metropolitan and Atlantic Divisions, respectively, in which case they could not meet in the playoffs until the conference finals.
But how delicious that would be — a rematch from last season’s final four and the fourth consecutive year a New York team drew Tampa Bay for that round. (The Islanders and Rangers have lost three such series in a row to the Lightning.)
For now, though, we will have to make do with what we got on Wednesday, which was a surprisingly spirited evening at Madison Square Garden for a not particularly meaningful regular-season contest.
The Rangers eventually won the entertaining, wide open, defense-challenged game, 6-3, after taking a 3-0 lead midway through the first period.
There were three fights and several other skirmishes.
The Rangers (46-21-11) welcomed the return of defenseman Ryan Lindgren, who had missed 17 of the previous 18 games with a shoulder injury, but were without Patrick Kane, who sat out with an unspecified lower body issue.
And in the first period, Jacob Trouba left the game for good after falling face first following a collision with the Lightning’s Corey Perry. The Rangers called it an upper body injury, its severity unclear.
The Rangers led 4-3 deep into the third period when Mika Zibanejad took a shot that hit the post and Chris Kreider put in the rebound to make it 5-3 at 11:38. Artemi Panarin made it 6-3 with a power play goal at 13:49.
For Tampa Bay (45-27-6), the night was a prelude to a far more significant game on their trip to New York on Thursday night, when they visit the Islanders in a game crucial to the Islanders’ teetering playoff chances.
The theoretically good news for the Islanders was that the Lighting expended a lot of energy at the Garden, while the Islanders did not play on Wednesday.
The Rangers scored first at 6:13 of the opening period, with the Lightning’s Steven Stamkos in the in the penalty box for slashing Vincent Trocheck.
Kreider deftly tipped a long shot by Vladimir Tarasanko past goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy.
Not long thereafter, at 7:41, the surging Kid Line delivered again, when Kaapo Kakko scored a goal in a third consecutive game.
His wrist shot from the right circle off a pass from Filip Chytil eluded Vasilevskiy low to his stick side, and it was 2-0.
Tyler Motte’s goal at 10:21 made it 3-0, and it looked like a runway in the making.
But with Alexis Lafreniere off for high sticking, Alex Killorn tipped Mikhail Sergachev's shot past Igor Shesterkin, and it was 3-1 at 10:40 of the first.
The Lightning had several good chances to get within one goal late in the first period, but Shesterkin was up to the task.
Tampa Bay had by far the better of the play early in the second period, and it paid off at 7:10 with a Brandon Hagel goal that cut the lead to 3-2.
But a mere 15 seconds later, Motte broke in alone on Vasilevskiy for his second goal of the game, and it was 4-2.
Shesterkin made a pad save on Perry on a partial breakaway midway through second period.
Shortly thereafter, he made another save, but Hagel scored on the rebound, as Shesterkin had fallen back and already was sitting in the goal when he grabbed the puck.
Killorn got his stick into Shesterkin as he sat on the ice, sparking another brawl.
The goal made it 4-3 at 11:34 of the second.
Perry and Trocheck fought late in the second, with Trocheck landing a clean punch that wowed the crowd when shown on the video board.
Soon Braden Schneider was fighting Ross Colton after Schneider leveled Nicholas Paul with a clean, devastating hit.
