NYR TODAY 12/31

Rangers end road skid with 5-2 win over Lightning
Strong third period lifts Rangers over Lightning, 5-2
By MARK DIDTLER
Associated Press

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) The New York Rangers have been talking about which style is the right one for them. They found it Wednesday night.

Dominic Moore put New York ahead early in the third, Dan Boyle had a goal and an assist and the Rangers beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-2 to end an eight-game road losing streak.

"We had a lot of good talks the last 24 hours about coming back to the team we really are," goalie Henrik Lundqvist said. "Play to our strengths and it starts really with hard work. We played really well tonight. We showed ourselves what we need to do to have success."

Lundqvist made 20 saves and moved past Rogie Vachon for 17th place on the NHL's career wins list with 356.

New York was 0-6-2 during the skid. Boyle scored in the first period and Mats Zuccarello in the second. Viktor Stalberg and Rick Nash added empty-netters.

New York also won for just the fifth time (5-10-2) in its last 17 games overall.

Jonathan Marchessault and Anton Stralman scored for the Lightning. Ben Bishop lost for the first time to the Rangers after winning his first nine games against them. Tampa Bay is 2-2-1 during a six-game homestand.

"If you really look at this game, we really didn't give them anything," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. "And when we did, it was our blunders. You look at that winning goal, we turned the puck over three times in a harmless situation."

The defending Eastern Conference champion Lightning are 9-8-2 at home this season after going 32-8-1 in 2014-15.

Moore gave the Rangers a 3-2 lead on a backhander 3:16 into the third after a defensive zone turnover by Tampa Bay. Two of his four goals this season have come against the Lightning.
"I just tried to stay poised," Moore said.

New York defenseman Marc Staal saved a goal in the opening minute of the third when he swiped Valtteri Filppula's shot off the goal line.

"I just saw Hank get a piece of it, so I knew it would start going to the net," Staal said. "I just got it in time."

The Rangers went ahead 2-1 on Zuccarello's shot from the top of the left circle 56 seconds into the second.

New York's Tanner Glass received an interference penalty late in the second for a hit that sent Brian Boyle over the boards and onto the Rangers bench.

Tampa Bay took advantage of Glass' infraction when Stralman's in-close shot trickled under Lundqvist's pads with 8.2 seconds to go in the second.

Boyle opened the scoring 1:53 into the game from the right circle off a nice pass by Keith Yandle. All five of the defenseman's goals this season have come in the last 10 games.

After failing to get a shot during their first two power plays, the Lightning converted a third chance and tied it at 1 when Marchessault redirected Stralman's shot with 3:25 remaining in the first.

NOTES: Tampa Bay C Steven Stamkos was minus-3. ... Nash has 390 career goals, which is one away from tying Martin St. Louis, Dean Prentice and Jean Pronovost for 99th place all-time. ... Rangers coach Alain Vigneault tied Phil Watson for eighth place on the team career list with 119 wins. He also moved past Jacques Demers into 21st place on the NHL's games-coached list with 1,008. ... New York RW Kevin Hayes, mired in a 16-game goal drought, was scratched. ... Lightning RW Nikita Kucherov had two assists and extended his point streak (nine assists, 11 points) to seven games. ... Tampa Bay LW Jonathan Drouin returned after missing eight games with a lower body injury.

 Tanner Glass was awarded the Broadway Hat after last night's Rangers win. (Bill Pidto on MSG)

The NHL explanation for Anton Stralman's tying goal
 From the NHL: "At 19:51 of the second period in the New York Rangers/Tampa Bay Lightning, the Situation Room initiated a video review to further examine a play at the New York net. The referee initially signalled "no goal" but after huddling with the other on-ice officials, the call on the ice was changed to "good goal" because the puck crossed the goal line on a continuous play resulting from Anton Stralman's original shot."

"Rule 38.4 (viii) states, in part, that the video review process shall be permitted in "situations whereby the Referee stops play or is in the process of stopping the play because he has lost sight of the puck and it is subsequently determined by video review that the puck crosses (or has crossed) the goal line and enters the net as the culmination of a continuous play where the result was unaffected by the whistle (i.e., the timing of the whistle was irrelevant to the puck entering the net at the end of a continuous play)." Video review supported the final on-ice decision - good goal Tampa Bay."

TODAY IN NYR HISTORY December 31
1991: Brian Leetch establishes a new Rangers record by extending his point streak to 17 games. Leetch records an assist in a 5-2 Rangers victory over the Winnipeg Jets.