Zibanejad pots 2 goals to lift Rangers over Lightning in season-opener

Mika Zibanejad scored twice, including a tiebreaking power-play goal in the third period, and the New York Rangers beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 3-1 in the season opener on Tuesday night.

Steven Stamkos had a power-play goal for the Lightning and Andrei Vasilevskiy had 36 saves.

Zibanejad, who scored a short-handed goal early in the second period, gave the Rangers the 2-1 lead at 5:11 of the third with a slap shot from the left circle off a pass from Artemi Panarin. It gave Panarin, beginning his fourth season in New York, 250 points with the Rangers.

Goodrow made it 3-1 as he deflected Ryan Lindren's long shot from the left point past Vasilevskiy with 9 minutes remaining.

LIKE WE SAID. <br><br>MIKA OCTOBER. <a href="https://t.co/4xLDwWAXQC">pic.twitter.com/4xLDwWAXQC</a>

The Rangers outshot the Lightning 14-8 in a scoreless first period, and 18-8 in the second.

The Lightning, tops in the NHL with 291 power-play goals over the last five seasons, got their first man advantage of the game early in the second period. However, seconds after Vasilevskiy stopped two short-handed slap shots by Chris Kreider, Zibanejad skated in from the right side, got around the goalie's poke check and lifted a backhander into the top left corner at 3:25 to put the Rangers up 1-0.

The Rangers were on the power play later in the period when Vasilevskiy was out of position and Kreider had an open net on the left side but defenceman Mikhail Sergachev skated over and stopped Kreider's chance with his stick with 6 minutes to go. Vasilevskiy then slid over and denied Kreider's attempt on the follow.

Vasilevskiy stopped a shot by Barclay Goodrow with a little more than 11 minutes remaining in the first. At the other end, Shesterkin stoned a driving