from Larry Brooks of the New York Post

The Rangers came gunning for the two-time champs on their home ice, you bet they did, taking everything the desperate Lightning had over the first 20 minutes while coming out of it unscathed.

And when both Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider scored on the power play by the 9:44 mark of the second period, the Rangers were not only up 2-0 but close to taking command of this conference final.

They were, in those moments, the young Cassius Clay giving a whooping to Sonny Liston in Miami in 1964.

Except there was no chance — zero, nada, nyet — that the Lightning were going to concede and wave the white towel while sitting on their collective stool. Perception was not reality. The Rangers were not all that close, after all.

The champs clawed their way back, dominating at five-on-five against every line but the Kids’ unit. They tied it just over one minute into the third period on their own second power-play goal, the first from Nikita Kucherov, the next from Steven Stamkos. The Rangers had been forced back on their stilettos and were never able to reverse course.

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from Eduardo A. Encino of the Tampa Bay Times,

The Lightning’s season wasn’t on the line Sunday, but it might as well have been when they went into the locker room for the second intermission trailing the Rangers by a goal, 20 minutes from sinking into a 3-0 hole in the Eastern Conference final.

Before Game 3, the Lightning talked about finding a way to get one win and going from there. New York outplayed Tampa Bay in the first two games at Madison Square Garden, but given where it has gotten them, the Lightning weren’t going to scrap their winning recipe now.

“We just had to stay with it,” coach Jon Cooper said. “I think there were times in this series when we’ve tried to manufacture things that weren’t there, and that put us on our heels.”

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