Coming into the game in Tampa, Lightning goaltender Ben Bishop was 9-0-0 in his regular season career against the New York Rangers; Wednesday night he was finally defeated.
Henrik Lundqvist only had to make 20 saves on 22 shots to give the Rangers their 21st win of the year and reclaim second place in the Metropolitan division. Bishop stopped 21 of 24 to take his 12th loss and the team’s 16th.
After taking an early 1-0 lead 1:53 into the game by a goal from Dan Boyle, the Lightning capitalized on a power play with a redirect by Jonathan Marchessault (6) to head into the first intermission tied up.
The Rangers would strike even earlier in the second period off of a snipe by Mats Zuccarello just 56 seconds into the period.
The momentum of play stayed even until Tanner Glass was called for an interference on Brian Boyle when he was sent into New York’s bench. With less than nine seconds in the period, former Ranger Anton Stralman dug deep in the crease and squeezed one past Lundqvist for his fourth of the year.
Though they would enter the third period all tied up, Dominic Moore tallied the go ahead goal 3:16 into the third period off a turnover from Tampa defenseman Victor Hedman. Victor Stalberg and Rick Nash would each earn an empty net goal to solidify a Rangers win to close out the 2015 year.
“We needed this win,” Lundqvist remarked. “Let’s be honest, December has been awful and to finish like this is good for us. We played really well tonight, and I think we showed ourselves the team we need to be to have success.”
The Rangers will go into the New Year against the Panthers in Florida on Saturday, January 2nd. They are currently 21-13-4.
Tampa Bay will take on the Wild in their next game at home on Saturday as well. They are currently 18-16-4 and sit in sixth in the Atlantic.
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