Palat scores late winner to help Bolts cut Rangers’ final Eastern Conference lead | CBC Sports

Ondrej Palat scored with 42 seconds remaining and the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning beat the New York Rangers 3-2 on Sunday to cut their deficit in the Eastern Conference finals to 2-1.

Palat’s goal, following an ingenious pass from Nikita Kucherov, capped a comeback that began after Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider scored power play goals in a span of just over two minutes in the second half to put Rangers up 2-0.

Facing the prospect of falling behind 3-0 in a series that began with a pair of road losses, the Lightning rallied back with Kucherov scoring on the second-half power play and Steven Stamkos firing a shot past goalkeeper Igor Shesterkin from left. circle at the beginning of the third.

Andrei Vasilevskiy made 28 saves for the Lightning.

Artemi Panarin had two assists for Rangers, and Adam Fox and Zibanejad were the main helpers on power play goals resulting from a pair of penalties scored by Shesterkin in the second half.

Tampa Bay’s Corey Perry was whistled for cutting in the first, and Riley Nash went to the penalty area for interference before Kreider’s goal made it 2-0 midway through the period.

Lightning coach Jon Cooper cited poor puck handling and a lack of a sense of urgency as factors in Tampa Bay starting the series slowly after a nine-day layoff that the defending champions won with a second-round sweep. of the Florida Panthers, winners of the Presidents Trophy.

Neither of those were a factor once the Lightning fell behind by two goals on Sunday.

In fact, New York lost the man advantage when Jacob Trouba was later called for tripping Tampa Bay’s Alex Killorn.

Shesterkin made save after save to keep the Rangers from falling behind, but couldn’t get his glove up high enough to stop Palat’s game-winning shot.

Tampa Bay, which hadn’t lost consecutive playoff games in three years before losing Games 1 and 2 at Madison Square Garden, rallied from a 3-2 deficit to win its first-round series against Toronto in seven games.

The Lightning swept the Florida Panthers, who had the best record in the NHL during the regular season, before struggling against the Rangers.

New York has also shown its ability to bounce back from adversity in these playoffs.

The Rangers overcame a 3-1 deficit to beat Pittsburgh in the first round, then rebounded from losing the first few games on the road and trailed Carolina 3-2 before winning another tough seven-game series to reach the Eastern final.