TAMPA BAY (FL) – It was a goalie dual until the very end between the two teams. Antti Raanta stopped all 38 shots he faced for the shutout while Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 33 of 34 shots as the Rangers came out victorious on a 1-0 nail biter.
“I feel like our guys were doing a good job, blocking a lot of shots and our [penalty kill] was really good tonight,” Raanta said. “When the team is playing like this, it helps you a lot. I think we gave up a little too many chances, but still we’re on the right track. It was a good, physical game.”
It took until 1:04 left in overtime until a goalie was finally solved. The game winning goal came off the stick of Mika Zibanejad on a breakaway with a feed from captain Ryan McDonagh. The goal was his second in the last 20 games. His last goal was an overtime thriller as well against the Devils in New Jersey.
The 23rd road win for the Rangers remains the most road victories of any team in the NHL.
Through the first three periods both goalies saw plenty of high quality scoring opportunities, only to get turned away. The Lightnings best scoring chance came from Ondrej Palat with a minute left in the first period when Raanta made the original save, but sprawled his right pad out to stop a wide open Palat looking to slam home the rebound.
“It was one of the best games we played all year,” Ondrej Palatsaid. “The effort was there, the energy was there. We played a solid 60 minutes.”
The overtime loss put the Lightning within two points of the second wild card spot, held by the New York Islanders who were off Monday night.
“We took another step tonight and we upped our game,” Lightning defenseman Anton Stralman said. “It’s not the one game that is going to decide it; it’s the team that can play the most consistent throughout this last stretch here.”
The Rangers win pulls them within two points of 3rd place Pittsburgh Penguins and 2nd place Columbus Blue Jackets, who are both tied with 88 points.
New York will head to Sunrise, Florida immediately as they face the Panthers Tuesday night at 7:30pm.
WATCH: All Rangers vs. Lightning highlights
Tampa Bay will have a couple days off and get ready to host the red hot Minnesota Wild, Thursday night at 7:30pm.
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