The Backcheck: Bolts miss out on comeback against Rangers Wednesday

A first period pushback from the Tampa Bay Lightning was undone by insurance goals from the New York Rangers on Wednesday night.

New York left with a 7-3 win, dropping Tampa Bay’s record to 8-6-2 ahead of this weekend’s back-to-back games.

The Rangers opened the scoring and carried multiple two-goal advantages at Benchmark International Arena, but the Lightning only trailed by one when a whacky first period ended in a 4-3 score.

New York then squashed any Tampa Bay comeback hopes by scoring in each of the final two periods.

“Looking at the way the game went, there were so many things I really liked about our team and our compete and all the things that went on,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said postgame. “And it was amazing how many unfortunate bounces went against us, and I felt bad for the guys. You felt for them because they were working.”

The Rangers took a 2-0 lead before the game’s fourth minute.

New York got a power-play goal from forward Will Cuylle 69 seconds into the game after the puck bounced off the end wall, and JT Miller doubled the lead 3:31 into play by finishing a 2-on-1 rush following a Tampa Bay turnover in the neutral zone.

Following a timeout from Lightning coach Jon Cooper, a trio of newer faces put the hosts on the scoreboard—rookie Jack Finley tapped a pass to Curtis Douglas in the defensive zone, where the latter fed a pass to Scott Sabourin to create a 2-on-1 rush.

Sabourin lasered his shot inside the right post 6:04 into his Lightning debut. It marked his first NHL goal since 2020 and the first career NHL point for both Finley and Douglas.

“Amazing,” Lightning forward Yanni Gourde said of the goal. “Great shot, and you love to see those moments. Great goal by Sabby and two guys getting their first points, it’s amazing and well deserved because they played well tonight.”

The teams traded scores for the rest of the period.

Alexis Lafreniere made it 3-1 Rangers 1:04 after the Sabourin tally on another rush chance, but Zemgus Girgensons pulled the score to 3-2 with a rebound goal from the slot with 6:01 left in the opening frame.

And when the Rangers took another two-goal lead on defenseman Will Borgen’s shot which went in off a Lightning stick, Tampa Bay again managed to stay close.

Defenseman JJ Moser intercepted a power-play pass by the Rangers and sprung Jake Guentzel on a shorthanded breakaway, one that ended with the 4-3 goal when Guentzel tucked his backhand shot through the pads of Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin with 2:28 remaining in the first.

Despite earning 12 of the opening 16 shots on goal in period two, the Rangers scored the only goal with 1:41 left in the frame. Forward Vincent Trocheck extended the visitors’ lead to 5-3 when he had an open shot and goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy lost his footing.

“It's mentally challenging when you're just getting into the game and before you know it, you're down 2-0,” Moser said postgame. “But I think we showed a lot of resilience as a team to fight back. We were right there. Even at the end of the second period it's a one-goal game, and then they get that one, which probably hurt a little bit, but we're still going into the third down two. We still have a chance.”

The scoring was capped by Trocheck’s second goal of the game on a shot from the top of the faceoff circles and an empty-net goal. Rangers forward Artemi Panarin finished with four assists to lead all players in scoring.

The Lightning outshot New York 36-21 in the loss, finishing the night 0-for-3 on the power play while erasing 2-of-3 Rangers power plays.

Both Cooper and Gourde said Wednesday had its positive moments. Neither accepted missing multiple players due to injury as an excuse for the loss.

“I mean, there's no excuse because the guys came up here and they played really good,” Gourde said. “All the guys that came up did an amazing job and picked us up. We’ve got to find a way to win those games.”

Up next for Tampa Bay is a visit to play the Florida Panthers at 5 p.m. Saturday.

Benjamin’s Three Stars:

1. Artemi Panarin, NYR (4 assists)
2. Vincent Trocheck, NYR (2 goals)
3. Scott Sabourin, TBL (Goal)