TAMPA, Fla. — At least now the Rangers have a template, something they can point to when speaking about knowing they can play the right way and compete against the best teams in the league.
Because what they did Thursday night at Amalie Arena was beat arguably best team in the league, a 2-1 victory over the Lightning coming on an overtime goal from J.T. Miller. It brought the Rangers their first road win of the season and the first consecutive victories for a team now 5-7-2 and clawing its way back into standings relevance.
“We knew how to play all along,” Miller said, his patient play through the goalmouth during the three-on-three extra period getting superb Tampa Bay goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy down on the ice so he could score the winner high into the net. “I think we were doing a lot of good things even when it wasn’t going well. We put it together for a good little stretch here, and it feels good — especially the first away win of the year. We’re going to enjoy it.”
More than anything, the Rangers were defensively stout, clogging the neutral zone so the dynamic Lightning (10-2-2) couldn’t come flying up the ice. And not only did they keep the top two scorers in the league in Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov off the score sheet, and limit the highest-scoring team in the league (4.08 goals per game) to just one goal, they did it with simple and effective plays and decisions.
Nothing fancy, and they kept the best under wraps.
“If you give them speed through the neutral zone, you’re going to get killed,” defenseman Marc Staal said. “We were paying attention to that part of the game, our play away from the puck the last couple days. It paid off.”
So, coupled with the 6-4 victory over the Golden Knights on Tuesday at the Garden, the Blueshirts have a little streak going. For all their talk about the good things they were doing during the historically bad 1-5-2 start, their efforts are finally turning into results.
Maybe they were focused because of the quality of their opponent, including old pals Dan Girardi, Ryan Callahan and Anton Stralman in the opposing locker room. But either way, the Rangers came out focused and stayed that way.
“Did not give up a goal in the first two minutes, which was nice,” said goalie Henrik Lundqvist, who instead of going down early was staked to a 1-0 lead when Chris Kreider scored at 18:34 of the first period. “When that doesn’t happen, obviously it’s a lot easier to stay confident and believe in yourself and do the right thing. And I also felt the guys were very structured in front of me.”
The Lightning came back when Yanni Gourde scored a shorthanded goal at 11:00 of the second period, finishing after a terrific pass from Hedman. And they thought they had the go-ahead goal 3:01 into the third period, when a long Alex Killorn shot got through traffic and beat Lundqvist, but was called no-goal because of goalie interference on Gabriel Dumont. It was upheld after Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper challenged.
“The only person in the building that thought it wasn’t a goal was the official,” Cooper said, apparently having not heard everyone from Rangers coach Alain Vigneault to Lundqvist say it was hands-down the right call.
It could have gone south from there, but the Rangers stayed the course. They couldn’t beat Vasilevskiy with numerous chances as the third period wound down, but they got to overtime and ultimately got the result they deserved. Now as the head to Sunrise, Fla., to take on the Panthers Saturday, they finally have something to hang their hats on.
“It’s definitely something that we can look to,” Staal said. “It’s definitely something we can fall back to when things aren’t going our way. We have to look to continue to keep that effort all game long.”