The Tampa Bay Lightning lead the New York Rangers 2-1 in the Eastern Conference Final in what has been a very compelling series through its first three games.
Rangers vs. Lightning Eastern Conference Final Predictions and Preview
New York took Game 1 with a thrilling 2-1 victory while Tampa Bay came roaring back to take Game 2 at Madison Square Garden in a 6-2 rout.
When the series shifted to Tampa Bay for Game 3, the Lightning overcame the Rangers 6-5 in overtime in what was a crazy back-and-forth game with goals galore.
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Here are five key storylines in the series thus far:
5) Triumphant Triplets: The trio of Tyler Johnson, Ondrej Palat and Nikita Kucherov, dubbed as the Triplets Line, has paced the Lightning in the playoffs, scoring 25 of the team's 47 goals, and that hasn't changed in this series. The line combined for four goals in Game 3, including Kucherov's overtime game-winner, and has eight tallies in this series. Johnson has four markers and six points in this series while Palat (3-2--5) and Kucherov (1-4--5) have also been productive. Johnson leads the playoffs with 12 markers and 18 points.
4) Homegrown Line: The Rangers have countered with a homegrown line that isn't quite putting up the gaudy numbers of the Triplets, but still has been solid. The trio of Chris Kreider, Derek Stepan and Jesper Fast has emerged as a potent one for the Blueshirts in a time where their big guns are struggling. The line has accounted for five on the Rangers' nine goals in the series thus far. Kreider and Stepan each scored on the power play in Game 1 while Stepan also had a goal in Game 2 and Fast found the twine twice in Game 3. Stepan leads New York with 12 points this spring while Kreider is knotted for first on the club with six goals. Alain Vigneault did begin to juggle his lines in Game 3, so this trio could end up being split up.
3) King Falling Off The Throne?: Henrik Lundqvist is largely the reason the Rangers are in the Eastern Conference Final for the third time in four years and second straight season, but the Lighting seems to have his number. Tampa Bay and New York met three times in the span of two weeks from Nov. 17-Dec. 1 in the regular season and the Lightning outscored the Rangers 15-7 in those three wins. It appeared as though Lundqvist figured them out in Game 1 when he stopped 23 of 24 shots in a 2-1 win, but he has allowed six goals in each of the two games since then. Lundqvist was beaten six times on 26 shots in Game 2 and then turned around and had a rough outing in the third match, yielding six tallies -- including Kucherov's very savable game-winner -- on 40 shots in the defeat.
2) Struggling Superstars: While Tampa Bay's big guns are contributing, New York's have remained dormant. Rick Nash has no points in this series and has just two goals in 15 games this postseason and he hasn't lacked scoring chances while former Lightning forward Martin St. Louis has two assists in this series, but ranks a minus-4 and has missed several key opportunities. St. Louis hasn't lit the lamp in the playoffs and has six helpers while ranking a minus-1 thus far this spring. By contrast, Lightning captain Steven Stamkos has two goals in this series and is 5-9--14 in the playoffs while Alex Killorn has beaten Lundqvist three times in this set and is 6-8--14 this spring.
1) Road Warriors vs. Home Heroes: Game 3 lived up to the hype of the Rangers being comfortable playing on the road and the Lightning soaring on their home ice and Game 4 shouldn't be any different come Friday. New York set a franchise record and paced the NHL with 28 victories away from Madison Square Garden in the regular season en route to winning its first Presidents' Trophy since 1993-94 while Tampa Bay won an NHL-leading 32 games at the Amalie Arena on the campaign.
With the race to the Stanley Cup continuing, the Lightning looks to take a commanding 3-1 series lead on Friday while the Rangers hope to nod things up at 2-2.
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