New York Rangers, in 3-2 series hole again, say 'there's belief'

NEW YORK — The Tampa Bay Lightning ended the New York Rangers' eight-game home playoff winning streak with a 3-1 win in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals on Thursday night, pushing them to the brink of elimination.

It's familiar territory for the Rangers.

«We've been down 3-2 in every series so far,» forward Andrew Copp said. «We're going to have to have a level of desperation. There's belief in the room. We played a pretty solid hockey game.»

Defenseman Jacob Trouba underscored that belief.

«It definitely stings,» he said. «But we have to go there, win a game, come back here and play a Game 7. That's the goal now. We're going to go to Tampa and win a game.»

The Rangers and Lightning were tied 1-1 late in the third period when a shot from Tampa Bay defenseman Mikhail Sergachev was deflected into the net by winger Ondrej Palat with 1:50 left in regulation. It was Palat's second game-winning goal in the past three games; he also scored with 42 seconds remaining in Game 3 back in Tampa.

The Rangers were limited to one goal for the second straight game, as Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy made 24 saves.

«It's defend until the end,» said Tampa Bay captain Steven Stamkos. «We just stayed patient. We knew it was going to be a challenge with the way they were playing, with the atmosphere. It certainly wasn't pretty at times. But we kept it at ones, and you never know. That's twice now where we went into the last couple shifts and continued with the game plan. When you stick with it long enough, you get rewarded.»

The two goals scored in the second period came from unlikely sources.

Rangers defenseman Ryan Lindgren, who had one goal in 15 postseason games, floated a long shot from the side boards through Vasilevskiy at