Recap: Rangers Defeat Lightning 6-3

The Rangers and Lightning are both playoff bound and have little to gain by another regular season win. But that didn’t stop them from bringing a play-off-like intensity to a largely meaningless game. For the Rangers, Ryan Lindgren drew back into the line-up, but Patrick Kane sat out with a lower-body injury.

First Period:

The Rangers jumped out to a three goal lead in the first before giving one back.

Chris Kreider opened the scoring with a classic Kreider deflection off a Vladimir Tarasenko point shot. It was Kreider’s 34^th goal of the season; he’s been quietly very solid this year. 34 goals is nothing to shake a stick at, even if it feels underwhelming after his 52 tallies last year.

Kaapo Kakko extended his goal streak to three to put the Rangers up 2-0. K’Andre Miller got the play started with a great break-out pass to Filip Chytil. He moved it wide to Kakko on the rush, and the Finnish winger put it home. The Kid Line is just rolling lately, I love it.

The Rangers got more depth scoring from the fourth line when Tyler Motte put up his first of two goals in the game. Barclay Goodrow won a 50-50 behind the net and kick it to the half boards, where Motte threw it on net and past Andrei Vasilevskiy. We take it.

Alex Killorn got the Lightning on the board on a powerplay deflection. Kreider still did it better.

Second Period:

The Lightning closed the gap in the second period, though they still trailed throughout. Former Hartford farmhand Taylor Raddysh notched his first career goal. He seemed to think it was tipped by Hagel, but at time of writing, NHL.com is calling it Raddysh's. So congrats to him!

Regardless, Motte answered with his second goal of the game. Alexis Lafreniere cleared the puck up ice, and somehow it eluded Nikita Kucherov. Motte scooped it up and beat Vasilevskiy for the second time. I’m gonna be real, I haven’t been this excited about a fourth line since Dominic Moore, Brian Boyle, and friends.

Brandon Hagel pulled the Lightning back within one a few minutes later. Anthony Cirelli got behind the defense on a partial break, and Igor Shesterkin made the first two saves. But Hagel followed up the play and popped the puck over the goal line. Despite the goal already being scored, Alex Killorn followed up a solid three-Mississippi later and jammed the puck in again. It was like that old SNES game where you get an extra point for cramming the goalie in the net after the goal. Needless to say, Lindgren and company took exception.

Third Period:

The Rangers pulled away with two third period goals. Kreider scored his second of the game when he cleaned up a pretty play from Mika Zibanejad. The assist was Mika Zibanejad’s 600^th career point. Love that guy.

Zibanejad wracked up his third apple of the game on the powerplay when Artemiy Panarin wired a wrister past his countryman from the left circle. I love the way he slightly changed the angle before the shot.

The Rangers held on from there, securing a 6-3 victory.

. . .

The Rangers won pretty handily, but it wasn’t easy in terms of effort. They were short a forward to start, and Jacob Trouba left the game early due to an upper-body injury. There were multiple fights and a handful of scrums. The bottom six continues to put points on the board, and if that keeps up in the playoffs, look out, world.

The Rangers take on Pavel Buchnevich, Sammy Blais, and the St. Louis Blues in their final back-to-back tomorrow night.