Lightning cruise past Rangers to even Eastern Conference final

Nikita Kucherov scored on a breakaway and Andrei Vasilevskiy had 33 saves Tuesday night, helping the Tampa Bay Lightning shut down the visiting New York Rangers 4-1 and even the NHL's Eastern Conference final at two games apiece.

Kucherov took a pass from Ondrej Palat in the middle of the ice and skated in on goaltender Igor Shesterkin to give the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions a two-goal lead just over 13 minutes into the second period.

Pat Maroon, Steven Stamkos and Palat also scored for the Lightning, who have rebounded from losing the first two games of the series on the road to keep their bid to become the first team in nearly 40 years to win three consecutive Stanley Cup titles alive.

Vasilevskiy stopped 28 of 30 shots to win Game 3 and was even better Tuesday night, when he extended a stretch in which he did not give up a goal to nearly 67 minutes before New York's Artemi Panarin scored on the power play at 16:27 of the third period.

Until Vasilevskiy's bid for a shutout ended, the Rangers hadn't scored since Chris Kreider's power-play goal put them up 2-0 at 9:44 of the second period in Game 3.

Vintage Kucherov