Trailing by two after allowing two power-play goals, the Lightning were staring down potentially being one loss from being swept out of the best-of-7 series. That's when Tampa Bay demonstrated its pedigree as two-time defending Stanley Cup champions and scored three straight, including Ondrej Palat's go-ahead goal with 41.6 seconds remaining, for a 3-2 victory at Amalie Arena.
"You get on the bench and you're down 2-0 in the game, 2-0 in the series," Lightning captain Steven Stamkos said. "You feel the momentum going the other way, but that's what it is to find a way at this time of the year, is which teams and which group survive]*
Cooper conceded that maybe three or four years ago, the Lightning wouldn't have been able to come back to win a game like this. But as Rangers forward Ryan Reaves said before Game 3, "They didn't win back-to-back (championships) by mistake."
Since being swept in the first round of the playoffs by the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2019, Tampa Bay has learned not to panic in these situations, forging championship mettle though its experiences that has carried it through a remarkable streak of 10 consecutive playoff series wins.
"No question the 'been there before' has really helped us, just our mindset in games," Cooper said.
The Lightning kept their streak alive by avoiding elimination against the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round, rallying from a goal down entering the third period of a 4-3 overtime victory in Game 6 and winning 2-1 in Game 7. They relied on that experience heading into the third period Sunday, trailing 2-1 after Kucherov's power-play one-timer from right circle at 10:50 started the comeback.
"Listen, it wasn't an ideal situation, but there's no quit in our group," Stamkos said. "We were in that position against Toronto in round one going into the third period. We were down 2-0 in the series. It's pretty much all on the line here in the third."
After another strong shift by the line of Hagel, Cirelli and Killorn drew a holding penalty on Rangers defenseman Jacob Trouba 37 seconds into the third period, the Lightning capitalized on the resulting power play with Stamkos hammering a one-timer from the left circle over Shesterkin's left shoulder to tie it at 1:22.
From there, Tampa Bay had to remain patient and hope its dominance at 5-on-5, where it outshot New York 40-21, would eventually pay off. The Lightning also had to survive Kucherov's high sticking double minor with 9:04 left before finally being rewarded with Palat's goal.
"After the second period, we were pretty calm in the room and we know we were playing pretty good 5-on-5," Palat said. "We just wanted to keep going, shoot the puck and eventually we knew we're going to score, and we did."
