Lightning won’t take Rangers for granted
The Tampa Bay Lightning know what type of effort it will take to finish off the New York Rangers.
The two-time defending champions are one win away from a third straight trip to the Stanley Cup Finals, where they would continue their bid to become the first team in 40 years to win three consecutive NHL titles.
The Rangers, down 3-2 to the Lightning in the Eastern Conference finals, have been especially resilient this postseason.
In addition to overcoming a 3-2 playoff series deficit to eliminate the Pittsburgh Penguins in the opening round, New York rebounded from losing the first two games to Carolina in the second round to oust the Hurricanes in seven games.
Game 6 of the East final is Saturday in Tampa, Fla. The Lightning won Games 3 and 4 on home ice after dropping the first two on the road.
“We’ve been down 3-2 every series so far, so we’re going to have to have a level of desperation,” Rangers forward Andrew Copp said.
“The confidence of doing it before is bigger and better; having to do it again there’s belief in the room. … We’re playing pretty good, and it’s a really, really tight series,” Copp added. “We just got to make that extra play at the end of the game to be the difference.”
Since being outscored 9-4 in the first two games at Madison Square Garden, Tampa Bay has won three straight to move to the brink of having a shot at the NHL’s first three-peat since the New York Islanders won four straight championships from 1980-83.
Game 7, if necessary, will be Tuesday night in New York.
The Lightning, who’ve won 10 consecutive series dating to the start of the 2020 postseason, aren’t taking anything for granted.
“We obviously know the fourth one in the hardest one to win. Our mind-set has got to be the same as the last three games,” Lightning forward Pat Maroon said.
“We know what’s at stake. We don’t take games off,” Tampa Bay’s Nick Paul added. New York “is a really good team. You take a night off, they’re going to take it over. … There’s no letting off the gas.”
The Rangers are 5-0 this
postseason when facing elimination.
They’re 2-7 on the road in the playoffs, but did win Game 6 in Pittsburgh to even that series before prevailing in Game 7 at Carolina to reach the East final.
“We don’t care when we win it, we just want to win it,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said.
“We have a great opportunity (Saturday night) to do that. … But just because it’s an elimination game, it doesn’t mean we are going to knock them out,” Cooper added. “If we don’t bring our best, it’ll be trouble for us because I know the Rangers will bring their best.”
Rangers coach Gerard Gallant is counting it.
“It’ll be a battle. They’re a good hockey team, that’s why they’re the Stanley Cup champs,” Gallant said. “We have to go in there, play our best game … win a game and give us a chance for a Game 7 back home.”
Briefly: A Rangers fan from Staten Island, N.Y., was arrested and banned from Madison Square Garden after he suckerpunched a Lightning fan — who was knocked unconscious — and then attacked another fan who tried to stop him after New York’s Game 5 loss Thursday. The alleged assailant, James Anastasio, faces two counts of assault and two counts of harassment . ... The Buffalo Sabres acquired goalie Ben Bishop from the Dallas Stars in a salary cap-related move involving a veteran who is not expected to play again because of degenerative right knee injury. The Sabres add the final year of Bishop’s contract, which represents nearly a $5 million cap hit to boost their payroll closer to the NHL’s $60 million minimum. Buffalo, which also acquired a seventhround pick in next month’s draft, was projected to be nearly $20 million under the cap floor before acquiring Bishop.