Rangers 4, Lightning 1: Lafrenière scores twice as New York stays perfect at home
The Rangers moved to 5-0-0 at Madison Square Garden and have now beaten Tampa Bay twice this season by a combined 9-2.
The New York Rangers beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-1 at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday, with Alexis Lafrenière scoring twice in the first period, according to NHL.com's game recap.
How the scoring went
Lafrenière scored 1:02 into the game, taking a pass from Tye Kartye in the slot, and again at 12:47 of the first, skating past Victor Hedman and Anthony Cirelli on a stretch pass. Tampa Bay's Zemgus Girgensons cut the lead to 2-1 at 17:26 of the first, going in on a 2-on-1 with Ilya Mikheyev. Will Cuylle restored the two-goal margin at 18:26 of the second with a deflection, and Mika Zibanejad finished it with a short-handed empty-net goal late in the third after taking the puck from Brayden Point, as reported by NHL.com and Forever Blueshirts.
Forever Blueshirts adds that Tampa Bay led 9-8 in shots after the first period, and that the Lightning pulled goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy for a 6-on-4 advantage after a Kartye penalty in the third, which the Rangers held off.
The goaltending
Dylan Garand made 25 saves for New York. NHL.com describes him as the Rangers' goalie since Igor Shesterkin's season-ending lower-body injury, and says this was his second straight start in that role. Garand is 5-0-1 in his career; per NHL.com, he matched Shesterkin and Cam Talbot for the fewest starts by a Rangers goalie to reach five career wins. Vasilevskiy stopped 19 shots for Tampa Bay per NHL.com (Forever Blueshirts has 18).
The streaks
The two goals extended Lafrenière's goal streak to a career-best four games, with seven goals in that span; it began with a hat trick against the Islanders on Oct. 6, per NHL.com. Asked whether he'd ever been on a run like this, he said, "I don't know," adding, "Our team's playing well. All four [lines] are playing good."
Zibanejad's goal was his 14th short-handed goal as a Ranger, tying Don Maloney for third in franchise history behind Mark Messier (23) and Adam Graves (16), NHL.com reports.
What it means
The Rangers are 6-2-0 and a perfect 5-0-0 at the Garden, all in regulation. NHL.com notes that last season the club had nine regulation home wins all year and did not reach a fifth until Dec. 20. Tampa Bay falls to 4-2-0, ending a four-game winning streak. Both of the Lightning's losses have come against New York at the Garden, by a combined 9-2, including a 5-1 loss in the Oct. 1 opener.
Lightning coach Jon Cooper was critical of his team: "it was dreadful tonight," he said, adding, "give the Rangers credit, they deserved both games." Rangers coach Mike Sullivan said, "I couldn't be more proud of them." New York plays at New Jersey on Thursday.