Tampa Bay head coach Jon Cooper was adamant regarding his desire for his team to compete more in the second game of the Eastern Conference finals. Cooper certainly received what he called for as Tyler Johnson and Alex Killorn combined for five goals in a 6-2 Lightning win.
After the game Cooper indicated he received his wish. “In think in game one we participated in a hockey game,” said Cooper. “In game two we came to win a hockey game.”
Despite the wide disparity on the scoreboard, this was a contest in doubt for 43 minutes. Alain Vigneault’s Rangers carried the play for most of the night, but were done in by sporadic poor choices, poor coverage and at times; less-than-ordinary goaltending.
Arguably without the benefit of the scoreboard observers might have watched the Rangers outshoot the Lightning by a 37-26 margin and declared them the winner based on the wide advantage of opportunities and chances.
However flash and dash wouldn’t do it for the New Yorkers as events conspired against them. It started to go bad when the Rangers seemingly had a chance to take the lead. Successive penalties by Tampa Bay’s Brian Boyle and James Garrison presented the Rangers with a 67 second five-on-three opportunity.
Tampa had nearly killed the first portion of the Rangers two-man advantage but with time expiring in Boyle’s penalty the Lightning received the game’s first break.
It started innocently when New York’s Martin St. Louis couldn’t handle the puck at the point. St. Louis couldn’t recover and tried to back-check after Killorn head-manned the puck to Johnson.
St. Louis did manage to get into the vicinity of the play and after Johnson shot once, and tapped at the rebound, the Rangers veteran crashed into goaltender Hendrik Lundqvist and the post. St. Louis’ momentum was such it caused the net to go off the moorings.
Initially referee Kelly Sutherland claimed the puck did not cross the goal line prior to the net leaving its’ moorings and waved off the goal. But after a video review Sutherland reversed his call and the Bolts were awarded a short-handed goal.
But the lead would not hold, slightly over three minutes later Chris Kreider would draw his Rangers even when he slid the puck past Tampa’s Ben Bishop. Dan Boyle started the sequence when he fired a shot on goal which was deflected on the way by St. Louis. Bishop made the difficult initial stop, but defenseman Victor Hedman errantly placed the puck where Kreider could direct it in.
It was at this point where Johnson would take the game over. The league’s leading scorer in the playoffs notched his second goal of the night when he sniped the top corner off a feed from Steven Stamkos. Johnson completed his hat trick when he crashed the net for the second time and poked in a rebound.
“The bigger the game the bigger he (Johnson) plays,” said Cooper. “He put the team on his back and we all followed.”
Yet the game was still in question and would be placed in doubt when Derek Stepan banked a shot of Tampa defenseman Braydon Coburn with slightly over five minutes left to bring the Rangers back within a score.
After a Rangers run to close the second period it appeared it would be a matter of time before the home squad knotted the score.
Jesper Fast nearly did exactly that with Stepan in the box for tripping Ondrej Palat. Skating shorthanded the Rangers nearly equaled Tampa’s shorthanded fete with the game-tying goal.
New York’s Rich Nash broke in on Bishop and placed a shot in a place where the rebound could not be controlled. The puck bounded to Fast who was denied by a stunning leg save by Bishop. Fast’s shot would be the high-water mark of the Rangers comeback bid.
Shortly thereafter Killorn notched his first of the evening off a great cross-ice pass feed from Stamkos. Stamkos would add a tally of his own off a deflection of a Coburn shot and Killorn completed the scoring with a wrister past Lundqvist.
Three Stars of the Night
First Star: Tyler Johnson, Tampa Bay. A true no-brainer here. Johnson had the golden touch and passed Anaheim’s Corey Perry by a point in the league’s scoring race.
Cooper was effusive in his praise for Johnson. “You walk into that kid’s house and you look at the trophy mantle; and all you see is the trophies that kid has won. The Memorial Cup, The Calder Cup, World Juniors, winning follows that kid.”
Second Star: Ben Bishop, Tampa Bay. I am different with the office game stars here. Bishop made 35 stops; some of a very difficult nature. If he doesn’t make the stop on Fast early in the third period this game could have had a different outcome.
Third Star: Alex Killorn, Tampa Bay. Only Valtteri Filppula (21:22) saw more ice time up front for Tampa in the second game of the series. Killorn played in 20:42 of the contest, scored twice and kick-started the Lightning with his head-man pass to Johnson to key the game’s first goal. It wasn’t mentioned by the broadcast crew, but his stick work against St. Louis while Johnson was breaking away was…helpful.
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