Postgame takeaways: Lightning remind Rangers that they can't be discounted in the East

TAMPA, Fla. - This grueling week has had a playoff feel for the Rangers, with that theme continuing Thursday at Amalie Arena.

In fact, if the standings were frozen at the time of puck drop against host Lightning, it would be a New York vs. Tampa Bay matchup in the first round.

Fittingly, both teams competed as if it were Game 1 of the playoffs.

The back-and-forth battle resulted in a 6-3 comeback win for the Lightning, who snapped the Rangers' three-game winning streak in the process. It served as a reminder that Tampa, while not quite as deep as it was during runs to back-to-back championships in 2020 and 2021, remains a very formidable opponent. (And probably not the preferred option for an early postseason showdown.)

"They've done it for a long time," Rangers center Vincent Trocheck said. "Any time now you give their top guys opportunities, chances are it's going to end up in your net."

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Steven Stamkos completed the rally from down 2-0 by scoring the winning goal with 7:15 to play, with Brayden Point − who was the best player on the ice for either side − assisting for his fourth point of the night. He added point Nos. 5 and 6 before the game was through while also registering a hat trick.

That proven Lightning star power is the primary reason they feel like a scarier first-round matchup than the Flyers, Islanders or Red Wings and must still be considered a threat in the Eastern Conference.

"You’ve got to be aware of those top guys," Jimmy Vesey said. "(Point) and (Nikita) Kucherov can control the game, I would say, at points. We kind of fed their game a little bit, and it's disappointing because I thought we were in total control of the game through half of it."

The Rangers (43-19-4) paid a heavy price in the losing effort.

Mika Zibanejad took a puck to the jaw that took him out of the game for a stretch of about nine minutes and forced him to a wear a full face shield for the final period, Artemi Panarin hurt his hand on a slash, and Alexis Lafrenière, Ryan Lindgren and Alex Wennberg each blocked shots that left them hunched over in pain.

"We'll sift through what's going on in the (locker) room here right now," head coach Peter Laviolette said of the various injuries.

It will send them limping into back-to-back Metro Division matchups over the weekend − first in Pittsburgh at 3 p.m. Saturday, then at home Sunday afternoon against the Isles.

"It's a tough stretch of hockey, but we've been embracing it," Vesey said. "Tonight, I just thought it was kind of a tale of two halves of the game. I thought we were the better team for the first 30 or so minutes, and then shot ourselves in the foot."

Rangers come out fast

The Rangers packed their momentum from Tuesday's divisional win in Carolina and brought it south to Tampa.

Chris Kreider nearly scored on a breakaway off the opening faceoff that was saved by Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy and the Blueshirts kept pressing from there. They out-shot the home team by an 11-5 margin while racking up eight high-danger scoring chances in the first period alone, according to Natural Stat Trick.

One of them came from the always dangerous Panarin-Vincent Trocheck-Lafrenière line, with all three taking a hand in the Rangers' first goal.

It started with Lafrenière winning a puck battle along the boards and pushing the puck ahead to Trocheck to spur a two-on-one rush. Trocheck skillfully dragged the puck around diving defenseman Darren Raddysh and dished it to Panarin for the one-timer, giving New York a 1-0 lead at the 13:58 mark.

The result was Panarin's 36th goal of the season, with the assist giving Lafrenière a new career-high 40 points.

"We came out with a lot of energy," Trocheck said.

Next up was a turn for Kreider, Zibanejad and Jack Roslovic to get involved, with Braden Schneider benefiting from the passing work of the revitalized line.

Kreider fed Roslovic in transition, with the newest Ranger flying through the neutral zone and eventually banking a pass off the back boards. Zibanejad received it and quickly redirected to Schneider in front of the Tampa net, with the surging defenseman netting the shot for his fourth goal of the season and first since Dec. 27.

Lightning won't go down easily

With a 2-0 lead heading into the second period and the Rangers’ top-six forwards humming, it looked like they could be on their way to another statement win. But the proud Lightning wouldn't lay over that easily, with their top six taking over as the game wore on.

They rallied in the second period, all while New York was dealing with injury scares for two of its most important players. Panarin remained in the game after being slashed in the right hand by Tampa defenseman Victor Hedman, but Zibanejad skated straight to the locker room after taking a puck to the jaw. It ricocheted off his own stick and hit him on the face while he was attempting to deflect a pass from Erik Cernak, leaving the Blueshirts to hold their breath regarding the status of their No. 1 center.

It also disrupted the flow of their rotation. The Rangers' top-two lines had been winning their matchups prior to Zibanejad leaving the game, but the game started to turn once Laviolette had to start shuffling the deck.

Trocheck didn't want to use that as an excuse, saying, "I don’t think that’s a factor." But there's no denying how much the Blueshirts rely on Zibanejad in all situations.

"He’s a pretty important player," Kreider said bluntly. "He should be a perennial Selke candidate every single year. He does everything for us. So, yeah, if he's not going over the wall almost every other shift, we miss him."

With the battered Rangers reeling, the Lightning pounced.

Less than two minutes after Zibanejad's injury, Point intercepted a pass from Jonny Brodzinski and turned the takeaway into the first of his three goals. That cut New York's lead to 2-1 at the 12:41 mark and got the ball rolling for Tampa.

"When we started turning pucks over at lines and we’re not advancing zones, it’s a pretty good team over there," Kreider said. "They’re going to take advantage."

Then, with 1:17 remaining in the period, former Ranger Anthony Duclair capitalized on a juicy rebound to knot the score at 2-2.

"I just thought at the end of the second period, we got away from what we were doing – just putting the behind them and going to work," Vesey said. "They had a tough time defending us through those 30 minutes, and then we kind of fed their high-end players some free chances. I thought that’s where the momentum turned."

Mika Zibanejad returns, but Rangers lose

When the Rangers first took the ice to begin the third period, Zibanejad was nowhere to be found. But just as players were gathering for the faceoff, No. 93 emerged from the locker room wearing a full face shield.

The Blueshirts' fans in attendance let out a relieved cheer and the team got right down to business. Just 1:48 later, Adam Fox setup Roslovic for a one-timer − his first goal as a Ranger and second point of the night − to retake a 3-2 lead.

"He's been awesome," Kreider said of Roslovic. "Great kid."

It was an up-and-down night for Kreider-Zibanejad-Roslovic line. There were exciting flashes of their offensive potential, as they produced two of New York's three goals, but the high-danger scoring chances were 9-2 in Tampa's favor while they were on the ice.

The Rangers' lead was short-lived, with the Lightning responding 1:51 after Roslovic's go-ahead goal. It was Point with another strong individual effort, making a hard move to the net to beat defenseman Erik Gustafsson and flicking a quick forehand shot past Shesterkin.

That made it 3-3, with Stamkos coming through with 7:15 to play to give Tampa the lead for good and Point putting an exclamation on the win with the hat-trick goal to make it 5-3. Kucherov added an empty-netter for the Lightning's sixth goal and his fifth point of the game.

The final tallies for shots (28-28) and high-danger chances (13-12 for the Rangers) were even across the board, but Tampa's two-time Cup-winning core did they've been doing for years − finished.

"I don't think we gave up a boatload of chances," Laviolette said. "But they’ve got a couple of really dangerous players on the other side tonight and they hurt us."

Vincent Z. Mercogliano is the New York Rangers beat reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Read more of his work at lohud.com/sports/rangers/ and follow him on Twitter @vzmercogliano.