TAMPA, Fla. — Resilience is one of the keys to any team’s success, especially in the NHL playoffs.
The Tampa Bay Lightning showed it in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals, and now it’s the New York Rangers’ turn to respond yet again.
At a glance
CONFERENCE FINALS
Best-of-7
MONDAY’S GAME
Tampa Bay 6, NY Rangers 2
Series tied 1-1
TUESDAY’S GAME
Chicago at Anaheim, (n)
Anaheim leads series 1-0
TODAY’S GAME All times Central
NY Rangers at Tampa Bay, 7 p.m.
THURSDAY’S GAME
Anaheim at Chicago, 7 p.m.
“As a coach, you’ve got to make adjustments in some areas, and you’ve got to push buttons. For these guys to keep such a high intensity rate for the whole playoffs, and that goes for every team, it’s a hard thing to do,” Lightning Coach Jon Cooper said Tuesday after arriving home from the team’s 6-2 victory that evened the series at 1-1.
Tyler Johnson’s hat trick and another impressive performance by goaltender Ben Bishop bolster confidence heading into the next two games, today and Friday, at Amalie Arena.
“It’s nothing magical I’m doing,” Cooper added. “Usually in these situations, our goalie’s bailing us out and our best players become our best players. That’s the secret.
“Those guys bind together and will us to victory. When we’ve had a hiccup, that’s probably been the reason why we’ve stopped whatever losing streak we’ve had.”
The Rangers dropped Game 2 after winning the series opener 2-1, but there’s no reason to believe they’ll panic.
In addition to compiling the league’s best road record this season, they have goalie Henrik Lundqvist and a penchant for thriving under postseason pressure.
New York has split the first two games in eight of its past 12 playoff series. The Rangers are 6-1 in those series during that span.
In the Eastern Conference semifinals, New York rallied from a 3-1 deficit to eliminate the Washington Capitals.
“We’ve got another challenge in front of us, both defensively and offensively. We’ve been able to do it before,” Rangers Coach Alain Vigneault said.
“Past doesn’t necessarily dictate the future, but I have a lot of confidence in this group that we can raise our level of play. There’s no doubt Tampa has done that. Now we need to do the same.”
The Lightning feel one key to Game 3 will be getting off to a fast start, much the way they did Monday night in New York.
Although they had the NHL’s top home record during the regular season, they’ve already lost three times at Amalie Arena during the playoffs.