In New York, the Rangers scored three goals in a span of 4:08 on Wednesday en route to a 6-3 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning. 
Tampa’s Corey Perry decided to be the molester he so famous for in the NHL, knocking Jacob Trouba from the game in the first period, and then having his helmet handed to him the third period by the Rangers Ben Harpur. The Lightning went low brow for much of the middle frame with skaters taking swipes and slashed at Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin.
“I don’t want the next four [games] to be like that, but I like the way our team responded to that game,” New York coach Gerard Gallant said. “Next week is going to be a different scenario, but we’ve got to play hard, we want to win every game. It’s all about trying to get two points. You look at the standings after the games and you say, ‘Well, we’re in third place, we’ll see what happens.’ It’s about getting two points and trying to move up and see what happens.”
The Lightning were whistled for 48 penalty minutes in the game.
New York was 2-for-5 on the power play for the night.
Shesterkin made 28 saves to get the Rangers win.
New York is 11-2-2 in their 15 games. they improved to 46-21-11.
Chris Kreider, Kaapo Kakko, and Tyler Motte scored in the first period outburst to give the Rangers the 3-0 lead.
The three goals came off a total of just six shots.
Filip Chytil and Alexis Lafreniere had assists to go along with the Kakko goal for the Kid Line. The Rangers improved to 21-0-2 when each member of the line notches a point in a game.
Tampa closed to within 3-2 on a goal from Alex Killorn in the first stanza, off the power play, and a strike from Darren Raddysh in the second period.
“You’re down 3-0 [early] into the game and by the time we get in here after the second, it’s 4-3 and we easily could have been up,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. “I like that. It’s tough at the end.”
The Rangers replied with Motte’s second of the night to make it 4-2.
“When those guys chip in with some big goals and they work hard it’s good for the confidence of our team,” Gallant said. “Tyler played real well tonight. He had good jump. He had a lot of shot opportunities at the net. Good for him. Put the pucks to the net. That’s what we talk about all the time. Fortunately for him he got a couple nice goals tonight, and perfect for us.”
The ice was tilted in Tampa’s favor for much of the middle frame, and scored again to make it 4-3 on a goal from Brandon Hagel headed to the third period.
The Rangers reclaimed control of the game in the third period, out-shooting Tampa, 16-6.
In the third, Kreider picked up his second marker of the match to make it 5-3 for the Rangers.
Kreider’s goal came after Mika Zibanejad skated through the mid slot and passed the puck to himself through his legs while Tampa watched his take a backhand, the rebound of which glanced to Kreider for the tap in.
“Direct hockey, closing on guys, physical, getting in battles, winning battles, advancing pucks, that was a strong game for us for the majority,” Kreider said. “The thing on a lot of the goals was attacking the net, attacking the net.”
Artemi Panarin hit off a power play on a wicked writer from the left side of the slot. Tampa stood around and let him dance his way lower to place the puck off the right post for the 6-3 final.
Despite the errant aggression shown by the Lightning, they dropped to 45-27-6.
“I thought we played an outstanding period,” Gallant said. “We didn’t give them a whole lot of chances, scored a couple big goals. I thought it was excellent.”
Perry challenged Shesterkin in his crease as time expired and Harpur took great exception. Shesterkin also took the opportunity to [pt his across the back of Perry’s neck.
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 31 saves in the Tampa loss.
“We battled back,” Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman said. “Maybe a little bit of an exhale after clinching a playoff spot, and we can’t really move because [it will be hard] to get to second place. We can’t let bad habits creep into our game, but we showed we battled back and played the way we wanted.”
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