Tampa Bay Lightning outlast New York Rangers in Game 3, prove 'there's no quit in our group'

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The New York Rangers have not cornered the market on not quitting in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

The Rangers took a 2-0 lead in the second period, but the Lightning came back to win the game and cut the Rangers' lead to two games. The game-winning goal was scored by Winger Ondrej Palat with 42 seconds left in the game.

It wasn't ideal, but there's no quitting in our group. In the series, we were down 2-0. Steven Stamkos scored a power-play goal early in the third to tie the game.

The 5-on-5 game was in the favor of the Bolts in Game 3, as they were able to get 51 shots and 83 attempts on Shesterkin.

For a long time, we've seen this from Palat. The kid doesn't speak. Everything he has is given to you. Jon Cooper said that he has the ability to play that blue-collar game with white- collar players. He's the third guy to talk about the lines he plays on. He makes it through.

With a victory in Game 3, the Rangers could potentially put the series out of reach. The all-time series record for teams that have taken a three-game lead in a best-of-seven series is 198-4. The all-time series record is held by teams that have taken a three-game lead in a best-of-seven game.

It's hard. You are on the bench and you are down 2-0 in the series. Stamkos said that he felt the momentum going the other way. This time of the year, it's important to find a way. Tonight was another example of finding a way to just win one game, and we have done it for a couple of years now. We talked before the game about Will your way to a victory. Tonight's effort was just another brave one.

After the first period, the game was uninteresting.

The teams were playing on the field. Shesterkin made two saves and Goodrow clanged one off the post on the power play. The player who slashed the mask of Shesterkin was whistled by the referee. The man entered the penalty box angry.

The teams played three-on-three for 13 seconds and then four-on-four for 15 seconds. 30 seconds after the Rangers went on the power play, Zibanejad blasted a shot through Vasilevskiy for the game's first goal.

The Lightning took a penalty against Shesterkin at 8:23 of the second period, as Riley Nash bumped him on a scoring attempt. Chris Kreider put in the rebound of his shot to make it 2-0 for the Rangers in the second period.

It was the 10th goal of the playoffs for the two players.

The Rangers coach didn't like the way the Lightning crowded Shesterkin's crease. I'm more scared of it than him. He didn't like it. It's not a big part of it. Hopefully, when we talk to the supervisor tomorrow, they will take care of some of that.

Cooper tried to push back.

They could not have called it tighter. He wondered what the three penalties on goalie interference were. Is this game net-front? I agree. Our game plan is to knock people over. It is not possible to say yes. We are on a power play. We decided to take ourselves off it. We don't want to hit the goalie. The Rangers were angry at that point.

Defenseman Jacob Trouba went to the box for interference as the Bolts got one back on a power play. He scored his second of the series and sixth of the playoffs on a blast to the left of Shesterkin.

Trouba made his second trip to the penalty box in as many games as the Lightning tied the game on a power play. Stamkos got his sixth of the playoffs when he got a one-timer on a cross-ice pass fromPerry.

After the high stick, the power play was killed off. Palat scored his 10th game-winning playoff goal and passed Tyler Johnson for most in franchise history.

Palat was able to get his team back into the series.

Stamkos said you either fold up or do it. Did we think we'd score with 40 seconds to go? It is not possible to say yes. We were excited to tie it up and think it would go to overtime. It can be a big swing in our favor.