Bolts end Rangers win streak at nine

AP Photo/Mike Carlson

The Tampa Bay Lightning ended the New York Rangers’ winning streak with a late shorthanded goal. Valtteri Filpulla and J.T. Brown hooked up for the winner with a minute remaining in the game with Brian Boyle in the box. Dominic Moore tied the game late with a solid individual effort, and the game looked like it was swinging in their favor after the Boyle penalty. But that’s how dangerous the Lightning can be.

Henrik Lundqvist was strong again, making several difficult saves look easy. Ben Bishop had the Rangers’ number, again. He seems to own them in the regular season.

This was a battle of two teams that may very well meet in the Eastern Conference Final again this season. You are looking at two of the top four in the East, and Tampa was without half of their forwards for this game.

As always, you can view the full videos on our video page here. All GIFs are on nyrgifs.com, filtered under the date of the game. On to the goals:

Bolts 1, Rangers 0

This was a bit of a broken play at first. The Lightning almost went offsides, then cleared the zone anyway. Keith Yandle wound up with the puck behind the net, but then tried to force a clear up the middle. Valtteri Filppula knocked it down and left it for Alex Killorn. Killorn walked in as Yandle and Kevin Klein backed off a bit. They both stood up by the top of the circle, where Killorn got his shot off. Not sure if this was such a wicked shot that Hank should’ve stopped it, but it looked stoppable.

Rangers 1, Bolts 1

Dominic Moore made all this happen. He pressured Ben Bishop on the forecheck, so the pass to Anton Stralman was a bit errant. It hit the boards just before Stralman’s stick, then just bounced out of the corner. Moore picked up the loose puck low, got a better angle, and beat Bishop to tie the game.

Bolts 2, Rangers 1

Derek Stepan tried to get the puck to Ryan McDonagh at the point on the powerplay, but the pass was in his skates and bounced from McDonagh. J.T. Brown picked up the puck and started a 2-on-1 against McDoangh. Brown got the puck to Valtteri Filpulla for the goal. This was particularly ugly all around, but it begs the question: Why isn’t Keith Yandle on the first powerplay unit?

Score-Adjusted Corsi

The game was pretty even in terms of flow until the third period. The Rangers kind of flat lined for a good portion of the period. Yes, they got their goal in the third off solid forecheck and a fortuitous bounce, but the rest of the period was lackluster. The rest of the game was even.

Scoring Chances

Tampa did a good job shutting down the slot and forcing the Rangers to the outside. They play a low-zone collapse once the puck gets behind the goal line, and it shows here, as the Rangers were limited in their chance numbers. What I also found to be interesting was that the Rangers didn’t force the puck through the collapse from the point. They tried to get the puck around it for better chances.

Individual Corsi

Oof, Girardi and McDonagh. Not your best game. That “All American” line though played well. Saw it on the ice, shows up here. I like when these match with what I saw.

Shot Locations

Good amount of attempts from both teams in the slot. Most of New York’s attempts were blocked though. The Bolts had a bunch too, but more were out by the circles.

Shift Chart

Nothing special here. Girardi and McDonagh got Stamkos as much as possible. Alain Vigneault didn’t have last change, but managed to get them out there when he could. The rest was a toss up, since the Bolts were missing half of their top players.

The streak was bound to end. Losses will happen. Such is life. There is another surprisingly tough test in Sunrise on Saturday night. Last year’s team was always good at rebounding after losses. Let’s see what this year’s team can do.