It seemed like the Tampa Bay Lightning were out of the series after trailing 2-0, and being down 2-0 at one point of Game 3 to the New York Rangers. It’s amazing what a comeback can do, as it’s a completely different Lightning team in the Eastern Conference Final. They made it clear in a decisive 4-1 victory in Game 4.
The game was barely underway when the first goal of the game arrived. Zach Bogosian jumped up on the rush and was able to get a shot on net. Pat Maroon floated the rebound past Igor Shesterkin to give the Lightning a 1-0 lead.
After that, it was back-and-forth action for the rest of the period, although none of the chances would amount to a goal. The closest to another goal was this two-on-one with Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov, but Stamkos opted to shoot it and Shesterkin made the easy glove save.
That scoring lull continued into the second, although this time the Rangers pressured more and more to get the tying goal. The intensity grew when Brandon Hagel gave Frank Vatrano a shove, and the two dropped the gloves.
That seemed to get the Tampa Bay bench fired up, as just a couple of minutes later, Ondrej Palat made a great pass to spring Kucherov, and he scored to give the Lightning a 2-0 lead.
A bad situation got even worse for the Rangers in the third period. Already without Ryan Strome, who was injured in Game 3, their center depth took an even bigger hit as Filip Chytil didn’t return for the third period after a collision into the boards courtesy of Victor Hedman.
It kept piling on for the Rangers. Early in the third period, the Lightning got some pressure in the zone, and Shesterkin put a rebound off of a Palat shot right on the stick of a wide open Stamkos, and he buried it to increase the Lightning lead to 3-0.
The Rangers needed to get back in this game, and a late power play did just that. Artemi Panarin corralled a rebound and found an opening to score and give New York their first one of the night.
That was all they could manage. Palat sealed the deal for the Lightning with an empty net goal, and Tampa Bay got the 4-1 win to tie the series 2-2.
That empty net goal for Palat capped off an impressive night for the winger, with three points on the night. Palat is now up to 13 points in 13 games. Andrei Vasilevskiy also had a great night, stopping 33 of the 34 shots he faced on the night.
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