The Eastern Conference Final started Saturday afternoon in Madison Square Garden. And ho-hum, the match ended in yet another 2-1 decision. Of course, the ho-hum is stated with tongue firmly planted in the cheek. There was nothing ho-hum about the game as New York Rangers won another one-goal contest by a 2-1 count, defeating the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 1 of the conference set.
“I do think a lot of our offense comes from defending well. Good defense will lead to offense,” Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said after the game. “  Against such a skilled and powerhouse offensive team, I think we need to defend, and that’s what we did tonight.”
Derek Stepan broke the ice with 13 seconds left in the second period to beat Ben Bishop off a rebound of a shot from Chris Kreider.
Ondrej Palat got the Bolts back to even with a one-timer on the power play early in the third.
Palat’s goal did not give the Lightning the lift that was expected as the Rangers continued to their push and had several chances right after the goal.
“Our power play was 25%, which is really good, or they had two chances in the third to score and we didn’t,” said Tampa coach Jon Cooper. “ Did we have our looks?  Did we have our zone time?  That we did.  So I can’t sit here and blame the power play, because if it wasn’t for the power play the game is not tied.
“We have to look a little more at our five-on-five play and see how we’re going to generate more from that, but I was okay with our power play. It’s easy to sit here and say we could have scored.  We had our chances.  We didn’t score, and they got the break at the end.”
The game-winner came off persistence by the Rangers’ Kevin Hayes below the Tampa goal line. Hayes carried to the puck to the righ boards just above the goal line, turned and writed a shot through the crease.
What ended up as a pass from Hayes deflected off Dominic Moore for the lead and the game-winner.
“Dom has done a lot of good things for us throughout the season,” Vigneault said Moore’s on the winner. “To see him get that goal, benefit of that bounce, hard work pays off. I thought his line tonight spent some good time in their zone.
“Unfortunately, after the first period, I mean, we got some grade A looks.  It was 0-0.  Sort of used to that, so we kept playing and kept plugging away, even though they tied it up, kept playing and got a good bounce for that game winner.”
Henrik Lundqvist was stellar when he had to be in making 23 saves for the win.
For New York it was just another one-goal effort.
“Challenging as a coach,” Vigneault said. “But this is such a competitive league, so little separating the teams. I think at the end of the day, that’s what you have to expect.
“People talk about scoring maybe being down a little bit. Look at the goaltending you’re seeing on the ice. I can’t comment that much on the Western Conference, but in the Eastern Conference all the teams’ goaltending has just been phenomenal. I mean, we got some great looks, some great chances. Their goaltender made some saves and our guy made some saves.”
Bishop had 28 saves in the loss.
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