National Hockey League
Tampa Bay 2, NY Rangers 1
When: 7:00 PM ET, Thursday, December 29, 2022
Where: Amalie Arena, Tampa, Florida
Referees: Mitch Dunning, Brian Pochmara
Linesmen: Devin Berg, Ryan Daisy
Attendance: 19092

Tampa Bay's Alex Killorn scored in the shootout's sixth round as the Lightning won their sixth straight home game, rallying to beat the New York Rangers 2-1 on Thursday night.

After Tampa Bay's Brayden Point and New York's Artemi Panarin scored in the first three rounds, Killorn entered with speed and beat Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin with a shot past the backstop's blocker.

Andrei Vasilevskiy (45 saves) then denied defenseman Adam Fox to lift the Lightning to a 2-1 win in the session and improve them to 14-4-1 on home ice.

With the win, Vasilevskiy moved to 15-9-1 and won for the second straight night after beating Montreal 4-1 on Wednesday. He is 17-7 in shootouts.

In the second of his team's three-game homestand, Point scored a goal for Tampa Bay, which is 9-3-0 in December. The club is 6-4-1 against the Metropolitan Division.

Tampa Bay survived a full four-on-three power play by the Rangers in overtime after defenseman Victor Hedman committed a tripping penalty.

For the Rangers, Mika Zibanejad found the net, and Shesterkin made 39 saves. The goalie fell to 4-6 in his career in the shootout.

Zibanejad, who scored four goals in three games last season against the Lightning, opened the scoring by taking a pass from Ryan Lindgren and sending it home from the high slot at 12:45. The goal was Zibanejad's 16th of the season.

In the crease for the second consecutive night on back-to-back matches, Vasilevskiy was strong and kept the deficit at one goal by making saves on breakaways by Vincent Trocheck and Vitali Kravtsov. He also stuffed Kravtsov from in close after the young left wing deked his way past Hedman.

At 4:49 of the second, Shesterkin held a puck near his blocker, but Brandon Hagel grabbed it, tossed it onto the blue paint and had it slide in for a goal. However, after a quick review, the tying tally was disallowed for a hand pass.

The netminders again were the stars of the scoreless second. Over the 20 minutes, Shesterkin stopped 14 shots, and Vasilevskiy denied 19 by the Rangers, including a robbery of Filip Chytil from below the right circle.

In the third at 5:32, Point notched his team-leading 20th marker on a short feed from Steven Stamkos by bouncing a shot off Shesterkin to tie the game at 1.

-Field Level Media

Top Game Performances
 
NY Rangers   Tampa Bay
Mika Zibanejad 1 Points Brayden Point 1
Mika Zibanejad 1 Goals Brayden Point 1
Mika Zibanejad 0 Assists Nikita Kucherov 1
N/A Power Play Goals N/A
N/A Short Handed Goals N/A
Igor Shesterkin .975 Save Percentage Andrei Vasilevskiy .978
Igor Shesterkin 39 Saves Andrei Vasilevskiy 45
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Shots Goals Power Play Penalty Kill Penalty Mins Face Offs Won
NY Rangers 46 1 0-3 1-1 2 21
Tampa Bay 40 2 0-1 3-3 6 34
Upcoming Games
  • Tampa Bay will play their next game at home against Arizona. The Lightning have a W/L % of .591 after a win and .750 after a loss.
  • NY Rangers will play their next game on the road against Florida. The Rangers have a W/L % of .526 after a win and .500 after a loss.