Rangers surge past Lightning in Game 1 of Eastern Final

NEW YORK -- Filip Chytil scored twice and was among six players with two points for the New York Rangers, who defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 6-2 in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday.

It is the first series lead the Rangers have had in these Stanley Cup Playoffs; they won each of the first two rounds in seven games.
Game 2 of the best-of-7 series is here Friday.
"I think when you compete hard defensively and you get opportunities like we did tonight, some 2-on-1s and some power-play goals, that's the recipe for us to win hockey games," New York coach Gerard Gallant said. "We had great goaltending, solid chances and we buried our chances."
Mika Zibanejad, Artemi Panarin and Frank Vatrano each had a goal and an assist, and Alexis Lafreniere and Adam Fox each had two assists for the Rangers, the No. 2 seed in the Metropolitan Division. Igor Shesterkin made 37 saves.

New York has won seven straight home playoff games.
"It's nice for the confidence to score some goals, but we've been at the other end of it," Zibanejad said. "[The series] is still just 1-0. It's a new game on Friday. Just got to get back to playing our game and try to take some positives from this game. … We know it's far from over. It's just one game so we've just got to keep going."
Steven Stamkos had a goal and an assist, Ondrej Palat scored, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 28 saves for the Lightning, the No. 3 seed in the Atlantic Division. Tampa Bay, which had won six straight, had not played since May 23.
"We're definitely not a group that is going to use [rest] as an excuse," said Stamkos, the Lightning captain. " …There's areas that we're going to improve on. It's Game 1 of a long series and you've got to give them credit."
Chytil made it 3-2 at 10:09 of the second period from the left hash marks off a pass from Kaapo Kakko, who was behind the net. Chytil scored his second from the right face-off circle to make it 4-2 at 15:43. He has five goals in his past three games.
"Fil's a good kid," Gallant said. "He worked hard, he competes hard and he deserves what he's getting right now. He's stepped his game up. He knows it, everybody knows it and that is exactly what we need from him."
Chytil has seven goals in 15 playoff games this season after he had eight in 67 regular-season games.
"When you're not putting pucks to the net, you're not helping the team that much and maybe start to be frustrated but now it's finally going in," Chytil said. "I'm so happy that I can help the team like this and [we're] winning the games."

Chris Kreider gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead 1:11 into the first period when he scored from the left circle off a pass across the middle from Zibanejad.
Stamkos tied it 1-1 at 7:18 with a slap shot from the top of the slot.
"The Rangers have some dynamic players, and you give them an inch and they'll take a mile, and they did that tonight," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "Give credit to them. They're a good team. ... They didn't fluke their way to where they are in this playoffs."
Vatrano put New York ahead 2-1 at 7:50, picking up a loose puck and sending a wrist shot over Vasilevskiy's right shoulder. Palat tied it 2-2 42 seconds later at 8:32 on the rebound of a shot by Stamkos.
"You've got to give them credit," Stamkos said. "That's a really good hockey team over there. They played well tonight. We certainly didn't have our best, so not much we can do about it now. ... Too many turnovers and execution wasn't there tonight. We have to respond. We've been in this position before and I'm confident our group is going to have a much better effort next game."
RELATED: [Complete Rangers vs. Lightning series coverage]
Panarin gave the Rangers a 5-2 lead 30 seconds into the third period, and Zibanejad scored a power-play goal for the 6-2 final at 6:06.
"It's always fun to play with the lead and not trying to crawl back into games," Vatrano said, "but they are a team that can score in bunches also, so we know no lead is safe against them. We've still got to do the little things right regardless of the score and can't give them any freebies. I think in the second and third period, we did a great job at moving our feet and being smart with pucks."
The Lightning allowed six goals after giving up three in a four-game sweep of the Florida Panthers in the second round.
Tampa Bay is 17-0 following postseason losses since the start of the 2020 playoffs.
"We've got better in us. We're going to show up in two nights from now," Cooper said. "… I give the Rangers full marks on their game, their plan, their effort tonight, and we'll try and make a few adjustments here and we'll be back in two nights."
NOTES: Vasilevskiy allowed six goals for the third time in his 93 playoff games. … The Lightning allowed two third-period goals after not giving up any in their previous six games. … The Rangers scored a power-play goal for the sixth straight game, matching their playoff record. They did it twice before (1986, 1990). … Jan Rutta had an assist on Stamkos' goal for his first point in these playoffs. It was the defenseman's sixth game.