The Tampa Bay Lightning began this season as one of the hottest teams in the NHL; but that was mostly at home. The blizzard in Boston welcomed the Bolts and although the NHL postponed the matchup on Saturday night the game being moved was a good thing because the results would have probably been similar to the loss on Monday night in New York.
The Lightning ended their road trip in Madison Square Garden and were once again outplayed and outclassed by an Atlantic Division team.
The Rangers scored three goals before Tampa Bay scored and New York played much better than their record shows. Carl Hagelin and Ryan Callahan scored the first period goals and Hagelin’s came only thirty seconds into the game. Callahan’s score was an intercepted pass that led to any easy breakaway goal.
Hagelin added another tally for the Rangers in the second period and Lightning goalie, Mathieu Garon, was pulled after the goal. Vinny Lecavalier scored his fifth goal of the season for the Bolts but the game was already completely controlled by the New York Rangers. Carl Hagelin has scored all three of his goals this season against the Bolts.
Aaron Asham and Rick Nash added two more goals for the Rangers before the game ended. New York net-minder, Henrik Lundqvist, was barely tested but stopped nearly every shot he saw. The consistent problem for the Lightning during their losing streak has been a low amount of shots. Over the last three games the Lightning have posted 22, 19 and 20 shots. Opposing defenses have bottled up the Bolts powerful offense and the Lightning have fallen back to earth as a result. Luckily, the Southeast Division has been equally cold lately and Tampa Bay still leads the division by one point.
Tampa Bay (6-5-0) will host the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday night in Tampa, and the New York Rangers (6-5-0) will travel to Boston to face the Bruins on Tuesday as well.
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