With a trip to the Stanley Cup Final hanging in the balance of Game 6’s outcome, the Tampa Bay Lightning played two periods of solid hockey and one period of something vaguely resembling hockey in a 7-3 loss to the New York Rangers.
Now, the Lightning will have to win a Game 7 on the road at Madison Square Garden, where the Rangers are a perfect 7-0 all-time in that position.
Such is life for a Tampa Bay team that has been maddeningly inconsistent during the 2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs, winning in buildings under circumstances where they had no business emerging victorious and laying eggs in other situations where everything seemingly lined up in their favor.