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Rangers vs. Lightning: Miller’s OT Goal Leads to Shocking Upset Over League Leading Bolts

The Tampa Bay Lightning have the best record in the league, but the Rangers shut them down in 2-1 victory.

For the first time this season the New York Rangers have won two games in a row and they accomplished this feat against a Tampa Bay Lightning team that boasts the top two scorers in the league in Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov.

Even more impressive was the fact that the Rangers kept Stamkos and Kucherov off the board and limited the 3.86 goals per game Lightning to a lone goal. Henrik Lundqvist was amazing and made 27 saves.

The Rangers struck first at the tail end of the first period on a 3-on-1 executed perfectly by Brady Skjei, Mika Zibanejad and finally Chris Kreider. The goal was like poetry in motion, and before the puck went in the net it was almost if you were waiting for the other shoe to drop and someone to mess things up.

All things considered it was a great period for the Rangers as they practically controlled everything on the ice.

The script flipped in the second period as Tampa gained life. There was a disallowed goal, some water squirting, a few altercations and much much more. Eventually Tampa scored a goal on a delayed penalty.

The Rangers were in pretty solid position on the rush back, but then Chris Kreider decided to enter the area Kevin Shattenkirk was covering, and forward Yanni Gourde was wide open as he picked up his third goal of the season.

The third period saw the Rangers take control again as they out shot Tampa 9-4. Although the Lightning only recorded four shots, the ones they got on goal were quality chances that forced Henrik Lundqvist to be at his best like this one late in third.

Once the period ended the Rangers had picked up a much needed point in the standings, and the team had the daunting task of going up a trio that include Stamkos, Kucherov and Victor Hedman. The Rangers didn’t let that intimidate them, as it only took them 1:19 into overtime to seal the deal.

Kevin Shattenkirk picked up the puck from his zone from Henrik Lundqvist, he skated it up and gave it to J.T. Miller who drove down the lane and took it straight to the post office for a top shelf game-winning goal.

With the victory the Rangers improved to 5-7-2 on the year and now have 12 points. The Rangers are off on Friday and will skate on Saturday night vs. the Florida Panthers with a scheduled puck drop of 7:00 p.m.

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