Rangers lament limited chances in Game 7 loss to Lightning
NEW YORK — Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final went as you’d expect. It was a tightly-played contest that was scoreless through two periods and once the Tampa Bay Lightning grabbed the lead 1:54 into the third period thanks to Alex Killorn, the frustration levels of the New York Rangers increased.
In Game 7, as they were so successful at all season, the Lightning won battles in the neutral zone, and didn’t give their opponents time and space to create many scoring chances. Ben Bishop made 21 saves, and was tested the greatest during a flurry of saves in the third period with Tampa holding a 1-0 lead.
The Lightning played out the final 18:06 of the third period with a lead, shutting down opportunity after opportunity and supressing the Rangers’ attack.
“They get that first goal and then they have numbers back,” said Martin St. Louis. “They make it hard. Just like if we would have got that first goal, we would have been a lot harder to play against just having numbers back. We always do. When they have numbers back you got to try to make plays under pressure and it’s a tough thing, it’s a tough thing in this league. You try to get shots through and they had a lot of guys in front of that net.”
According to War on Ice, the Lightning held the Rangers offense to just 11 scoring chances at even strength. Tampa killed off the only two penalties in the game in the second period. New York couldn’t generate much, and when they did, Bishop was strong in net, bouncing back again after a tough start.
“They did a good job of clogging up the neutral zone,” said Ryan McDonagh, who was playing through a broken foot. “[We] didn’t get enough pucks behind them, spend enough time there. We wanted to try and put pucks toward Bishop; probably didn’t put enough pucks there all night and didn’t get to the hard areas to try and get those rebound goals, which were the ways we created our offense in the past games.
“We have nothing to hang our heads for here. Effort was there all throughout the series, all throughout the playoffs and just came up a little short here tonight.”
Bishop blanked the Rangers in Games 5 and 7, both at Madison Square Garden. Keeping the Rangers off the scoreboard first, where they were 8-3 in the playoffs, was key, as the Lightning improved to 9-0 in that category this spring.
“The difference was we were able to score early on the road and that obviously made them open things up a little bit,” said head coach Alain Vigneault. “Last two games at home we weren’t able to find the space and generate the looks to get anything past their goaltender.”
This is now three times in the last four seasons the Rangers have reached at least the Conference Final only to be eliminated. Last year, their season to came to an end in five games in the Stanley Cup Final to the Los Angeles Kings. Yet again, a Presidents’ Trophy winner fails to win the final game of the NHL season. And again comes a long summer for the Rangers of wondering what could have been done better.
“I think for us it’s just tough to swallow right now,” said Keith Yandle. “It was a good run, but it just doesn’t seem right right now.”
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Sean Leahy is the associate editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Sean_Leahy
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