NHL Premiere Series: Tampa Bay Lightning 5-3 crush New York Rangers
The 314th game of NHL Premiere Series saw Tampa Bay Lightning play host to New York Rangers at St. Pete Times Forum this Wednesday. Around 18,000 fans came out to see their teams play as it was Rangers' 23rd game of the campaign so
far while Lightning's 22nd.
Rangers didn’t have any extraordinary play in the 1st period and made only a few early shots at the goal without a success. The home team came up with their attacks as a result. Steven Stamkos' inclusion in the side proved fatal for Rangers as
Lightning struck the first goal in the 8th minute through Ryan Malone and via a flick shot.
Malone once again scored for Lightning in the 16th minute to double his side's lead. With Lightning leading 2-0, the 1st period ended as Lightning made 11 goal attempts while Rangers made 5.
The 2nd period was also dominated by the home side. They scored early on in the 5th minute to take their score to 3-0. This time, the goal came of Steven Stamkos through a flick shot as he bagged his 21st goal of the season.
Lightning’s dominance led them to score once again in the 12th minute. The goal scorer was Brett Clark. 5 minutes later, they seemed to have actually wrapped up the match as they struck another goal through Victor Hedman.
Both teams went into the break with Lightning leading 5-0 as they made 14 goal attempts while Rangers made only 2 attempts at the goal.
The final period saw Rangers in attacking mode but it was too little too late. The away side scored three times in the 4th, 13th
and 19th minutes through Steve Eminger, Brain Boyle and Derek Stephan respectively but still lost the match as Tampa Bay Lightning won 5-3.
The final period also saw New York Rangers make 13 goal attempts while Lightning make 9.
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