Behind Alexis Lafreniere’s sixth and seventh goals of the 2026-27 season, the New York Rangers routed the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-1 at MSG Tuesday evening and improved to 5-0-0 at home this season.
The win was the Blueshirts’ second straight against the Lightning as they beat them 5-1 on Oct. 1 and Tuesday night’s victory snapped Tampa’s four-game winning streak.
From puck-drop, the Rangers skated faster and moved the puck better than the Lightning, who, on Tuesday, did not look like the same team that won 50 games and finished with 106 points last season.
The Rangers registered the first shot on goal of the game when they broke out of their zone with two passes. Eventually, Mika Zibanejad found off-season acquisition Pavel Dorofeyev open on the wing, who ripped a wrist shot that was stopped by Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy.
Just over a minute into the game, Lafreniere scored an even strength goal. Tye Kartye won a puck battle and fed the former first-overall pick in front of the Lightning net where he beat Vasilevskiy with a wrist shot.
Over 10 minutes later, Rangers captain J.T. Miller emerged out of the corner with the puck and passed to Tye Kartye, who flipped the puck from his defensive zone into the neutral zone. Lafreniere collected the puck after skating behind two Lightning defensemen, went in on a breakaway and beat Vasilevskiy off the post and in to make it 2-0.
With 5:43 remaining in the period, the Lightning’s Jeffrey Viel fought Rangers enforcer Matt Rempe in the latter’s first game of the regular-season. Rempe clearly won the fight and both players incurred five-minute major penalties.
With 2:34 remaining in the first period, Zemgus Girgensons scored a wicked wrist shot on a 2-on-1, beating Dylan Garand above his glove-side shoulder to cut the Lightning’s deficit in half.
The offenses went quiet for almost all of the second period despite each team registering nine shots on goal.
Near the end of the second period, the Rangers had a one-goal lead and managed to sustain offensive zone time. Noah Laba passed the puck up the boards to Marcus Pettersson, who was at the point and passed over to his defensive partner Sean Durzi. Durzi then took a wrist shot from the point that Will Cuylle caused to change direction with a perfectly timed deflection, giving the former Vezina trophy-winning goaltender no chance to save the shot. The goal was Cuylle’s third of the season.
With under a minute left in the second, the Lightning’s Brandon Hagel had a high-danger scoring chance when he tried to one-time a wrist shot at the backdoor but he missed the net.
Again, both offenses were quiet for the majority of the third period and shots were lower than in period two. Part of the reason for this was the Rangers’ superior skating, checking and puck control, which allowed them to break out of their zone quicker and limit the Lightning’s offensive zone time.
With 4:26 remaining, Hagel delivered a hard, clean body check to Laba along the boards. Kartye then pushed Hagel to the ice and was penalized for interference. Stanley cup-winning head coach Jon Cooper decided to pull his goaltender and have his team skate at a 6-on-4 man advantage.
The Rangers handled the situation almost as if they were at even strength—outskating and stick checking their opponents all over their defensive zone until they gained possession. It paid off when Zibanejad poke-checked Brayden Point, won the puck, skated past him into the neutral zone and scored an empty-net goal with just under three minutes to go, ensuring the Blueshirts would skate to a 4-1 victory in front of their fans.
Garand earned third star of the game for making 25 saves, Kartye was the second star for his two assists and Lafreniere continued his great start to the season with two goals earning him first star of the game honors.
The Rangers now own a 6-2-0 record and are five points clear of the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Metropolitan Division’s second place.
Their next game is against the New Jersey Devils on Thursday at the Prudential Center. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m.
