TAMPA, Fla. — The Tampa Bay Lightning’s top players came up big — again. The New York Rangers’ Rick Nash and Martin St. Louis continued their postseason goal-scoring struggles.
Nikita Kucherov scored 3:33 into overtime to give the Lightning a 6-5 victory over the Rangers on Wednesday night in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals.
“That might sting tonight, but one thing about our guys is, we just find a way to make our adjustments,” Rangers center Derek Stephan said.
Nash has just one goal in his last 13 games and two overall in the playoffs after scoring 42 during the regular season. St. Louis was held without a shot and hasn’t scored in 15 games.
“Guys are trying hard right now,” Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said. “It’s game where I thought we showed a lot of character coming back and evening this up in regulation. Our guys are battling. We’re going to look at the game and see if there’s some areas we can improve on, and get ready for the next one.”
Ondrej Palat had two goals and an assist, and Tyler Johnson, Steven Stamkos and Alex Killorn each had a goal and an assist for the Lightning. They took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-7 series that continues Friday night at Amalie Arena.
The line of Johnson, Palat and Kucherov has 25 of the Lightning’s 47 playoff goals.
“Well, they’ve impressed me for a long time and now they’re impressing the world,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said.
The winner came about a minute after New York goalie Henrik Lundqvist made a terrific stop on J.T. Brown’s breakaway.
“Hank had stopped a breakaway right before that, and sometimes things happen,” Vigneault said.
The Rangers have played one-goal games in 16 of their last 17 playoffs games, including 14 of 15 this season.
New York tied it at 5 on Dan Boyle’s rebound with 1:56 left in regulation. Jesper Fast scored twice, and the Rangers also got power-play goals from Derick Brassard and Ryan McDonagh.
Bishop finished with 23 saves for Tampa Bay. Lundqvist stopped 34 of 40 shots, giving up six goals for the second straight game.
