Return to the game: Kucherov's goal and Vasilevsky's 34 saves helped Tampa to level the score in the Eastern Conference Finals

If the intrigue died quickly enough in the NHL Western Conference playoff semi-finals and Colorado stepped into the decisive stage of the Stanley Cup, leaving no chance for Edmonton with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, then in the East everything is just beginning.

“Tampa Bay” in the fourth match took over with a score of 4:1 and restored parity in the series with the Rangers, thereby extending it at least until the end of the week.

A huge role in the Lightning comeback was played by Russians Nikita Kucherov and Andrey Vasilevsky.

The wards of John Cooper spent the second home match on an emotional upsurge, because in the previous meeting they remembered the taste of victories.

The Rangers, on the other hand, had to deal with personnel problems.

Forward Ryan Stroum was injured, so the head coach of the team, Gerard Gallan, reshuffled the links, which, of course, did not have the best effect on the team's actions in defense.

It was a new combination of hockey players on the ice when, in the third minute, Pat Maroon opened the scoring, hitting the gates of Igor Shesterkin.

While the guests were recovering, Tampa could score again, but catching the Russian goalkeeper by surprise this year is not an easy task.

At first, he did not allow the opponent to realize the majority, stopping the puck with his foot, and then coped with a powerful shot from Stephen Stamkos.

Realizing that the team made mistakes too often, Gallan made new adjustments to the composition.

He transferred Artemy Panarin to the first link to Mika Zibanejad and Frank Vatrano.

However, this did not affect the course of the match.

Yes, the Rangers added in the number of shots, but their quality left much to be desired - Vasilevsky coped with them without much effort.

Attack "Tampa" looked much more prepared and sharp.

In one of them, Kucherov scored, for whom the goal was the seventh in the current playoffs.

Ondrej Palat with an excellent transfer brought the Russian one on one with Shesterkin, and he outwitted his compatriot.

Nikita scored his 50th home game point in the last three NHL playoff seasons.

Over the past 35 years, only two hockey players have succeeded in this - Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky.

In addition, the striker for the first time in his career was able to distinguish himself in three games of the Stanley Cup in a row.

Shesterkin was also marked by another achievement.

He broke the milestone of 600 saves in one NHL playoff in 18 games.

Past best result - 19 meetings.

This achievement was first established in 1971 by Ken Dryden.

Since then, the record has been repeated, but only Igor managed to update it.

However, that was the only good news for the Rangers fans that evening.

The team in the third period and could not oppose anything to the opponent.

At the very beginning of the twenty-minute period, the guests conceded another goal - from Stamkos, who was on time to finish off after another Shesterkin save.

In addition, the New Yorkers again suffered losses: Philip Chitil received an upper body injury.

Panarin managed to sweeten the end of the meeting for his team, still beating Vasilevsky and not allowing him to issue a shut-out.

True, the Rangers at that moment acted in the majority and removed the goalkeeper.

This puck had a positive impact on the emotional state of the team.

The guests actively spent the last minutes of the game on the ice.

However, the final score in the match was set by Palat, who hit an empty net.

After the meeting, Panarin looked upset, but he tried to look for pluses in defeat.

So, the striker noted that his team had not lost confidence in their abilities and in the next match they would be even more hungry for victories.

“It’s not easy, but we can’t be sad.

It certainly won't help us.

You have to try to be positive.

We must remain positive.

We've been in worse situations, so it's okay.

Hopefully we can get through this at Madison Square Garden now.

It will be nice to see our fans again.

We will try to achieve more, ”the official website of the NHL quotes the words of the Russian.

And Tampa's mentor John Cooper drew attention to the excellent performance of Vasilevsky, for whom this victory was the tenth in the current playoff draw and the sixth home in a row, which was a repeat of the club record.

The goalkeeper made 34 saves and was recognized as the first star of the match. 

“He's back in shape.

If anyone got hurt because of this break, it's most likely him, because it throws you out of the rhythm.

But now he has a few games under his belt," the coach said.