Sergachev scores 2, Lightning beat Rangers 3-1 in Game 5

NEW YORK (AP) — Mikhail Sergachev scored his second goal of the game with 1:50 remaining to break a tie and lead the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 3-1 victory over the New York Rangers on Thursday night for a 3-2 lead in the Eastern Conference final.

Brandon Hagel added an empty-netter with 59 seconds to seal the two-time defending champioin Lightning’s third straight win, the first by a road team in this series. Andre Vasilevskiy stopped 24 shots.

Ryan Lindgren scored for New York, which had won eight straight at home. Igor Shesterkin finished with 24 saves.

Mikhail Sergachev scored for the Lightning. Andrei Vasilevskiy had 24 saves.

Game 6 is Saturday night in Tampa, Florida.

Vasilevskiy made several sprawling saves midway through the third, stopping attempts by Ryan Strome, Adam Fox and then Lindgren in a 32 second span to keep it tied 1-1. Vasilevskiy also gloved a shot by Kevin Rooney with about eight minutes left.

Shesterkin made a nice save on a rush by Ondrej Palat two minutes into the second period, and Vasilevskiy had sliding pad save on Tyler Motte less than a minute later to keep the game scoreless.

Shesterkin then made several nice saves during a Lightning power play, including on a slap shot by Nikita Kucherov 4:14 into the period.

Sergachev beat Shesterkin from the right point through traffic in front to give the Lightning their first lead of the night.

The Rangers got their first power play of the night when the Lightning were called for too many men with about eight minutes into the middle period. They managed two shots during the advantage.

Shortly after the penalty expired, the Rangers opened the scoring when Lindgren fired a shot from the left side over Vasilevskiy’s right shoulder with traffic in front