Lightning Outshoot Rangers For Victory

Maybe it was fitting. After how both the Rangers and Lightning took turns dominating play, the final regular season meeting went to a shootout. For the Rangers who a night earlier dropped a 3-2 shootout at Florida, it was a bad omen again- this time falling to the Lightning 4-3 at St. Pete Times Forum Saturday.

"It's disappointing not to win one or both games," Ranger defenseman Jason Strudwick told the AP. "When you leave it into overtime and shootouts, anything can happen so we have to clean up our act a little bit in the early periods."

The loss was their third straight and put them in a virtual tie for first in the Atlantic due to the Flyers' 6-3 win over Ottawa. Both have 90 points with 11 games remaining including two head-to-head meetings which could ultimately decide who wins the division and earns home ice for the first round of the playoffs.

Early on, the Blueshirts controlled play and took advantage of two Tampa penalties to take a two-goal lead. The first tally came from Petr Sykora, who one-timed his 21st past John Grahame at 11:57. It was his 13th goal as a Ranger. Martin Straka and Sandis Ozolinsh notched assists.

With left wing Martin Rucinsky out a month due to a broken left index finger suffered Friday night via an undetected Jay Bouwmeester slash, the Rangers recalled Alexandre Giroux from Hartford. Making his NHL debut on the fourth line, the rookie drew a hooking penalty on Pavel Kubina late to setup the Rangers' second goal.

On a nifty passing play, another rookie Petr Prucha connected on the power play for his 28th. After Jaromir Jagr worked the puck down low to Michael Nylander, Nylander threaded the needle to an open Prucha who one-timed the puck over Grahame for a two-goal lead at 18:04.

But the Rangers couldn't stand prosperity. Just 34 seconds later, Martin St. Louis surprised Henrik Lundqvist when he rebounded home a Brad Richards shot for his 24th to slice the lead in half before the period concluded.

At the start of the second period though, that's when the Rangers' MVP Jagr continued his torrid scoring pace to put them up 3-1. Only 30 seconds in, he one-timed a Prucha centering feed into an open side for his league-leading 51st goal and 107th point of the season. It moved Jagr to within one goal of tying Adam Graves' franchise mark of 52 set in '93-94. He also needs just two more points to match Jean Ratelle's franchise mark of 109 set back in 1971-72.

"I think everyone feels honored to be part of it," Ranger coach Tom Renney said. "Jaromir comes to work every day and displays what you could only hope for in a player like that, with his work habits and the way he treats his teammates and the respect he shows the organization and the coaching staff."

Just when they seemed to have the Lightning on the ropes, Fredrik Modin's wrister from inside the blueline snuck past Lundqvist to cut it to one at 3:13. Brad Richards and Cory Sarich added assists.

Once again though, the game changed when Ruslan Fedotenko's clearing attempt went over the glass for a Delay of Game infraction. Not long after, it looked like the Rangers had scored their third PPG of the contest. When Sykora one-timed a puck under Grahame, the red light came on and initially, it was 4-2 Rangers. But not so fast. Referees Mike Hasenfratz and Dean Warren decided to go upstairs for a lengthy review. Several replays couldn't conclusively determine whether the puck crossed the line.

The wiped out goal was a huge momentum swing. Afterwards, a reenergized Lightning started outworking the suddenly dejected Rangers. Activating their defensemen, they began swarming the Rangers in bunches and keeping pucks in for long stretches. The strategy eventually resulted in the tying goal when Ryan Craig deflected a Sarich blast by Lundqvist to tie it at 11:15.

From that point, the Rangers were on their heels and fortunate to get a point for the second consecutive night. Relying on a sharper Lundqvist (10 third period saves), they scratched and clawed their way to overtime. In it, they ran into trouble when Tom Poti took a holding penalty. But the Lightning couldn't beat Lundqvist, forcing a shootout.

After Jagr, Vincent Lecavalier and Sykora were stopped, Richards was the difference by deking Lundqvist to the forehand. When Grahame stuffed Nylander's backhand stuff-in try, Tampa Bay moved two points ahead of the Devils for sixth in the East.

Notes: Making his fifth start in six and sixth in the last eight, Lundqvist finished with 31 saves. Showing some signs of slowing down, he's allowed three goals-or-more in four of his past six starts including eight in the past two losses. ... Grahame stopped 20 of 23 shots. ... Lightning defenseman Dan Boyle left the game in the first period, suffering a right ankle injury after beating out Steve Rucchin for an icing. ... With two points, Jagr extended his point streak to eight straight (8-7-15). ... Nylander has 14 points (4-10-14) during a current seven-game point streak. ... Ranger defenseman Darius Kasparaitis sat out his third straight with a groin injury. The Rangers are 0-1-2 without him. ... Rangers (39-20-12, 90 pts) return home to host Buffalo (44-21-5, 93 pts) Monday.