Will Cuylle, J.T. Miller and Alexis Lafreniere tallied on New York’s first three shots, and the Rangers continued their road prowess in a 7-3 shellacking of the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday night.
The trio strung together their goals in the opening 7:08, setting up the Rangers’ eighth win in 10 road games (8-1-1) and fifth straight victory away from home.
Cuylle and Vincent Trocheck hit the net twice each and Will Borgen also scored for the Rangers. Artemi Panarin recorded four assists and Adam Fox had two helpers as 11 Rangers posted points. Igor Shesterkin made 31 saves.
In losing for the first time in five home games, the Lightning received goals from Scott Sabourin, Zemgus Girgensons and Jake Guentzel. Jack Finley and Curtis Douglas notched their first NHL points with assists on Sabourin’s tally.
Tampa Bay goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy surrendered five goals on 13 shots and was benched after two periods. Backup Jonas Johansson stopped six shots in the third.
After placing Ryan McDonagh and Dominic James on injured reserve, the depleted Lightning also were without captain Victor Hedman as well as Anthony Cirelli and Pontus Holmberg.
Lightning winger Brandon Hagel left in the first period and did not return after a hard, high hit by Carson Soucy.
On an early power play, Fox’s shot off the end boards caromed back to Cuylle, who rattled it in just 69 seconds in. At 3:31, New York’s Mika Zibanejad intercepted Nikita Kucherov’s pass in the neutral zone, faked a shot and sent a feed over to Miller, who pushed the lead to 2-0 when the puck went in off his skate.
Sabourin scored his first goal of the season on a sharp shot at 6:04, pulling Tampa Bay within 2-1. However, Lafreniere sent a scorcher from the bottom of the right circle to regain the two-goal lead just over a minute later.
Girgensons scored off a rebound at 13:59 of the first, but Borgen answered with his first goal less than three minutes later.
Guentzel’s short-handed breakaway made it 4-3 at 17:32 of an eventful opening period.
Trocheck potted his first of the season for the only goal in the second and added another in the third. Cuylle later scored into an empty net.
–Field Level Media
