Rangers lose to Lightning, drop 6 points back of playoff spot

Five games remain in the regular season for the Rangers, and every one that clicks off the schedule draws the Blueshirts closer and closer to a long, sad summer.

Monday’s 5-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning at Madison Square Garden left the Rangers six points behind idle Montreal for the second and final wild card playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, and dropped their tragic number to five points, meaning any combination of points lost by the Rangers or earned by the Canadiens adding up to five will eliminate the Blueshirts from playoff contention.

Back in action after Saturday’s damaging setback to the Devils in New Jersey, the Rangers (36-34-7, 79 points) actually played a pretty strong game. They dominated possession for much of the game and outshot the Lightning (39-22). The Lightning are 45-26-6, 96 and battling with Toronto and Florida to win the Atlantic Division

But their special teams once again let them down. This time it was the penalty kill, which allowed two power play goals in the first period, and three overall, in four times shorthanded. Brayden Point had two of the Lightning’s power play goals, and set up the other by Nikita Kucherov. Yanni Gourde scored at even strength as the Lightning took a 3-0 lead in the first period that proved too much for the Rangers to overcome.

The Rangers had gotten off to a fine start, generating chances in the first half of the first period, led by an energetic performance from the fourth line, with Matt Rempe making his return to the lineup, alongside Jonny Brodzinski and Brennan Othmann. The three brought hustle and physicality, and spent most of their shifts in the offensive zone.

But things turned when Tampa Bay’s Oliver Bjorkstrand took the game’s first penalty, sending the Rangers’ struggling power play (1-for-28 over the previous 11 games) onto the ice. The extra man unit actually had some chances and looked dangerous, until Chris Kreider took a penalty of his own, wiping out the final 11 seconds of the man advantage and setting up the Lightning’s first power play.

Twenty-eight seconds into the Lightning power play, Kucherov tapped in Point’s cross-crease feed, to make it 1-0, Tampa Bay, at 13:09 of the first. It was the first of three goals in a span of 1:45, as Gourde scored to make it 2-0 at 13:45, and Point scored on the Lightning’s second power play, to make it 3-0 at 14:54.

The Rangers showed fight in the second period, though, dominating the shot on goal totals (18-5) and getting on the scoreboard on a power play goal by Mika Zibanejad, when Artemi Panarin’s pass banked in off his skate at 3:16 of the period.

The goal gave the Rangers life, and they pelted Tampa goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy with rubber. But they failed to get any closer before the intermission, and Point’s second power play goal, at 15:40, made it 4-1 and put the game out of reach. Brandon Hagel added an empty net goal at 17:18.