Tampa Bay Lightning outlast New York Rangers in Game 3, prove 'there's no quit in our group'

TAMPA, Fla. — Turns out the New York Rangers haven't cornered the market on having «no quit» in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The Tampa Bay Lightning rallied from a 2-0 deficit in the second period to win Game 3 at home on Sunday night, 3-2, cutting the Rangers' Eastern Conference Final lead to 2-1. Winger Ondrej Palat scored the game-winning goal with 42 seconds left in regulation on a perfect pass from Nikita Kucherov, who factored in on all three Lightning goals.

«It wasn't an ideal situation, but there's no quit in our group. We were down 2-0 in the series. It was pretty much all on the line in the third,» said captain Steven Stamkos, whose power-play goal 1:22 into the third tied the score at 2-2.

Stamkos ticked off what worked for the Lightning in Game 3 that hadn't worked in the first two games in New York: The 5-on-5 game being in their favor; pumping 51 shots and 83 shot attempts on goalie Igor Shesterkin, while getting a strong 28-save effort from Andrei Vasilevskiy; a penalty kill that allowed two Rangers power-play goals but came up big during a four-minute high-sticking penalty on Kucherov in the third period; and, finally, getting a clutch goal from Palat when they needed it.

«We've seen this for years from Palat. The quiet kid, doesn't say anything. All he does is given you everything he has, every shift. He's got that ability to play that blue-collar game with white collar players, and that's a great trait to have,» Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. «He's usually the third guy talked about on the lines he plays on. But he comes through.»

The Rangers, whose marketing slogan on social media this postseason has been #NoQuitInNY, had an opportunity to potentially put the series on ice with a Game 3 win. Heading