Brayden Point scored twice and the Tampa Bay Lightning scored three times within two minutes in the first period to defeat the New York Rangers.
The Lightning got on the board first when a Chris Kreider penalty gave the Bolts the man advantage, and Nikita Kucherov wristed a shot past Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin for his 34th goal of the season. It was his 96th career power-play goal and tied Martin St. Louis for fourth most in Lightning history.
The Lightning scored again 40 seconds later when Yanni Gourde flipped a backhand in the net as he was falling to the ice.
Gourde, acquired by the Lightning from the Seattle Kraken at the trade deadline, scored his first goal since re-joining the team.
Point scored another power-play goal as the Lightning took a 3-0 lead into first intermission. It was his 40th goal of the season, and the third consecutive season he has reached that mark.
Kucherov picked up an assist on the goal and became the fourth player in NHL history to record 80 assists in three consecutive seasons. The others are Wayne Gretzky, Paul Coffey, and Bobby Orr.
The Rangers cut the deficit to two in the second period on a Mika Zibanejad power-play goal. It was Zibanejad’s 10th goal in 15 games against Lightning netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy.
That is all the Rangers could do in a period that saw them outshoot the Lightning 18-5.
Point scored again on the power play late in the third period to give the Lightning a 4-1 lead. Brandon Hagel added an empty net goal to make the final score 5-1.
The loss puts a damper on the Rangers’ chances of making the playoffs. They are in danger of becoming the fourth team to have won the Presidents’ Trophy and then failed to qualify for the playoffs the following season, joining the Rangers of (1991-92/1992-93), the Buffalo Sabres (2006-07/2007-08), and the Boston Bruins (2013-14/2014-15).
