It took a lot for the Rangers to lose this one — a bad break here, a missed assignment there, and then a 6-foot-7 goalie morphing into a brick wall.
With that confluence of events, the Blueshirts found their three-game winning game streak snapped by a 2-1 loss to the Lightning Tuesday night at the Garden, a game that could have gone either way if it weren’t for the continued dominance Ben Bishop has over the Rangers.
“He was a big part of it, he made some key saves,” said Rangers captain Ryan Callahan, the victim of two of Bishop’s most sparkling saves, a swinging catching glove on a close wrist shot midway through the second and then a left shoulder stop on a snap shot from the slot early in the third. “He played well tonight, but at the same time, no matter how good a goalie plays, you always look at yourself.”
That has been a rather easy task over the past couple weeks, as the Rangers (24-21-3) came in with an 8-2-1 record over their previous 11 games. But Bishop, coming off a four-game absence due to a left wrist injury, as well as being snubbed for the U.S. Olympic team, made 33 saves and improved to 5-0 in his career against the Rangers. Not only that, but he has now allowed just four goals over 263:15 when facing the Blueshirts.
“We kept coming at him, kept creating, getting chances,” defenseman Marc Staal said. “We weren’t smashing our sticks or looking to the ceiling or anything like that. The opportunities were there, we just couldn’t get a big goal at a key time of the game.”
What happened instead was that a nine-second sequence early in the second period was the Rangers’ undoing. After Brad Richards had staked the Blueshirts to a 1-0 lead in the first period, the second began with Callahan getting called for a high-stick on Bishop, an incident that happened after the play had been blown dead and Lightning defenseman Eric Brewer decided to lift Callahan’s stick nonetheless, right into Bishop’s mask.
“The play was dead so I’m not really holding my stick too tight, and even Brewer apologized and said it was him,” Callahan said. “It’s a tough one to take.”
Tough because on the ensuing power play, Victor Hedman rifled a slap shot that deflected off Brian Boyle’s leg and past Henrik Lundqvist’s glove, tying the game 1-1. On the ensuing faceoff, Michael Del Zotto was found sleeping, hardly noticing Nikita Kucherov until he was by him on a breakaway, a nifty little move beating Lundqvist low for the last goal Tampa Bay would need.
“It’s something that we talked about [Tuesday] morning and showed on video,” coach Alain Vigneault said of the set play the Lightning (28-15-4) run off the faceoff, the two goals coming just nine seconds apart, tying a Lightning franchise record. “They did the exact same play three shifts before, as a matter of fact.”
From there on out, it was Bishop carrying the load. Even as the Rangers’ newly dynamic power play got two opportunities in the third period, Bishop stoned Mats Zuccarello on the doorstep and sent the Rangers off shaking their heads as they prepare for the Red Wings coming to town Thursday.
“He’s been playing really well all year,” Lundqvist said of his counterpart. “He’s a big goalie and uses his size really well. You have to give him some credit.”