TAMPA, Fla. — Henrik Lundqvist had lots of help in another season-saving performance for the New York Rangers.
The star goalie stopped 36 shots, and Derick Brassard had a hat trick for the Presidents’ Trophy winners, who forced Game 7 in the NHL’s Eastern Conference finals with a 7-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday night.
The Rangers, who overcame a 3-1 series deficit to oust the Washington Capitals in the second round, improved to 4-0 in elimination games this postseason. Lundqvist is 9-1 with his team’s season on the line since the start of last year’s playoffs and 15-3 under those circumstances dating to Game 6 of the 2012 Eastern quarterfinals against the Ottawa Senators.
He’ll have a chance to build on that superb record in Game 7 on Friday night in New York.
“We capitalized early on our chances, and after that, our goaltender was asked to make some big saves, which he did,” Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said. “But in the third period, with our season on the line, we probably played our best period of this series so far. We wanted a chance and we got a chance.”
Brassard also had two assists for the Rangers, who evened the series 3-3 after being shut out in Game 5 at home. Keith Yandle, James Sheppard and J.T. Miller also scored on Tampa Bay goalie Ben Bishop, who was pulled with New York leading 5-1 with just under 13 minutes remaining. Rick Nash added a power-play goal against Andrei Vasilevskiy, and Brassard had an empty-netter with 1:41 to go to complete his hat trick.
“Every time we’re in an elimination game, that’s the way we play,” Brassard said. “We’re just going to go out there at home and try to play our best game.”
Thumbnail photo via Reinhold Matay/USA TODAY Sports Images
