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NEW YORK (AP) — Ondrej Palat scored on a deflection with 1:50 left to break a tie and lead the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 3-1 win over the New York Rangers Thursday night for a 3-2 lead in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Mikhail Sergachev had a goal and an assist, and Brandon Hagel also scored to help two-time defending champion Lightning claim their third straight win, the first by a road team in the series. Andre Vasilevskiy stopped 24 shots and the Lightning moved one win away from returning to the Stanley Cup Finals for the third straight season.
Ryan Lindgren scored for New York, who had won eight times in a row at home. Igor Shesterkin finished with 24 saves.
Game 6 takes place Saturday night in Tampa, Florida.
Vasilevskiy made several sweeping saves and stopped attempts midway through the third game Ryan Strome, Adam Fox and then Lindgren in a 32 second span to keep it at 1. Vasilevskiy also shot wide while wearing gloves Kevin Rooney with about eight minutes remaining.
Shesterkin made a nice save on the rush Ondrej Palat Two minutes into the second period, Vasilevskiy had a skid Tyler moth less than a minute later to keep the game scoreless.
Shesterkin then made several nice saves, including on a slap shot, during a Lightning power play Nikita Kutscherow 4:14 into the period.
At the decisive goal, Sergachev got a pass Victor Hedman and fired a shot from the right spot through traffic up front, which deflected off Palat’s knee and past Shesterkin to give the Flash their first lead of the night.
Sergachev punched Shesterkin from the right spot through the traffic in front of him to give the Lightning their first lead of the night.
The loss brought Rangers to a 3-2 hole streak for the third time this postseason. They trailed 3-1 to Pittsburgh in the first round before clinching three straight wins to advance. They then trailed 3-2 to Carolina before winning the final two games to advance to the conference finals.
Rangers got their first power play of the night when the Lightning were called out for too many men about eight minutes into the middle. They managed two shots during the lead.
Shortly after the penalty, Rangers opened the scoring when Lindgren fired a shot from the left over Vasilevskiy’s right shoulder with traffic ahead, 9:31 in the third. It was the defenseman’s second of the postseason.
After a Lightning envelope, Motte fired a long shot that was gloved and choked by Vasilevskiy with just under three minutes left to keep it a one-goal game.
Just 30 minutes later, Sergachev equalized from center stage with a shot through traffic for his first goal of the postseason with 2:26 to go.
The Rangers passed the Lightning in a fast and clean first half. New York had the only shot on goal in the first 5 1/2 minutes, a Braden Schneider slap shot 1:42 into play. Tampa Bays Nikita Kutscherow hit a goal post less than 20 seconds ago.
Nicholas Paul hit a post with 8 1/2 minutes to go and Shesterkin stopped a shot Riley Nash with 6:48 remaining on the Blitz’s second shot on goal of the game.
Vasileveskiy made two nice saves a minute later and deflected slap shots Artemi Panarin and Philip Chytil.
RELAY A MESSAGE
The Rangers had forwards Ryan Strome and Philip Chytil in the starting lineup. Strome missed Game 4 with a lower body injury sustained in the previous game. Chytil left the game Tuesday night just after the middle of the second period after a strike from the Lightning defender Victor Hedman.
New York was without a striker Ryan Reaveswhich was a healthy scratch. Kevin Rooneywho came on for Strome in the previous game played again.
The Lightning were without a striker Brayden point (Lower Injury) for a ninth straight game. He has not played since his injury in Game 7 of Round 1 against Toronto.
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