First Period:
- Nikita Kucherov (5) (Power Play) Assists: Anthony Cirelli (4), Victor Hedman (9)
- K’Andre Miller (2) Assists: Frank Vatrano (7), Chris Kreider (4)
- Kaapo Kakko (2) Assists: Filip Chytil (2), Adam Fox (16)
Second Period:
Third Period:
- Mika Zibanejad (9) Assists: Chris Kreider (5), Frank Vatrano (8)
- Nicholas Paul (3) Assists: Corey Perry (2), Nikita Kucherov (12)
Three Stars:
- 3: K’Andre Miller
- 2: Frank Vatrano
- 1: Adam Fox
Stats:
Adam Rotter:
- Just an excellent game from the Rangers. Tampa looked like they were ready to push in the first five minutes, but the Rangers just took over after that and spent most of the game in the offensive zone.
- At the same time I’m a little mystified at how poor Tampa has played through two games. Some, maybe a lot of it, is the Rangers doing, them being quicker to pucks, wining battles and forcing turnovers, but Tampa is throwing a lot of unforced errors and looking nothing like the disciplined, smart and structured team you expect them to be.
- You can never count Tampa out and it’s possible that this follows the same route as the Carolina series and we come back to Game 5 tied at 2, but through two games the Rangers have been so much better that it’s becoming harder, not to see Tampa win, but to see the Rangers lose. Still, Tampa showed how dangerous they could be with their push in the last two minutes. Pushing for five minutes early and two minutes late is different than playing a 60-minute game, but Tampa still has that ability.
- There are two other things with Tampa that are both potentially jinx-worthy. One is Andrei Vasilevskiy. He did not look comfortable at all tonight and with the number of pucks that were squeaking through him the Rangers probably should have been up by more than one heading to the third.
- Igor Shesterkin was great again and the Rangers didn’t even really need him to be…until the last two minutes. He and and the rest of the team made some big blocks at the end to keep the Rangers in the lead.
- The Rangers just look like a different team. They look like the team I expected them to be next season, after this playoff experience, but they’ve continued to get better and reach new levels as the playoffs have gone on, but especially since Game 6 against Carolina. They are executing at a high level and even when they’ve won that hasn’t always been the case. These two games, and the last two against Carolina, were just wins. They weren’t games where they had to find a way, they just won.
- Adam Fox was spectacular and Mark Messier himself mentioned how Fox’s play reminded him of Brian Leetch.
- The Kid line was excellent again and it was nice to see Kaapo Kakko score and get rewarded for his strong play lately. Mark Messier keeps raving about Kakko’s work down low and how he expects that to translate to offense and being a high-level player down the line. He’s taken big steps in the playoffs after a mostly lost season and that is great for now and beyond.
- So Tampa’s streak of not losing two in a row in the playoffs is over and the Rangers seem totally in control of this series. Tampa was better tonight than in Game 1, which isn’t saying much, but they still look like they are overmatched by the Rangers. It’s like a role reversal of what you’d expect with the Rangers being the confident team, controlling play and dictating the pace and Tampa being the sloppy team that is playing most of the game in their own zone. I’m going to keep expecting Tampa and Vasileskiy to raise their level based on their history, but if the Rangers stay at this level it may not matter.