Lundqvist, Nash power Rangers

Associated Press

TAMPA, fla.

Henrik Lundqvist stopped 38 shots to rebound from two subpar performances and help the New York Rangers shut down the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-1 on Friday night in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals.

Rick Nash had two goals and an assist, and former Lightning captain Martin St. Louis ended a playoff scoring drought with a third-period goal for New York. The Rangers evened the best-of-7 series 2-2 heading back to New York for Game 5 on Sunday night.

Lundqvist allowed 12 goals in losing Games 2 and 3, but redeemed himself by handling nearly everything the speedy and skilled Lightning threw at him.

Tampa Bay’s Steven Stamkos scored for the third straight game, briefly making it 1-1 before New York’s Chris Kreider and Keith Yandle struck within a 2-minute span for a 3-1 Rangers lead.

With the Lightning’s Nikita Nesterov in the penalty box for high-sticking St. Louis, the star of Tampa Bay’s 2004 Stanley Cup championship team delivered his first goal this postseason to make it 4-1 with just under 15 minutes remaining. Nash added another power-play goal at 11:33 of the third period.

The Lightning outshot the Rangers 39-24 but couldn’t rattle Lundqvist, who rejected Stamkos from point-blank range and moments later stopped Alex Killorn on a breakaway during one sequence with Tampa Bay trying to get back in the game in the second period.

Lundqvist stopped 18 of 19 shots in the period, and had 13 more saves in the third.

Earlier Friday, Lundqvist reiterated after the morning skate that he still had confidence in himself and that one of the keys to rebounding as a team would be not trying to do anything special Friday night, but rather just “do our jobs.”

In seven games against the Rangers, three of them in the regular season, the Lightning have scored at least five goals on Lundqvist four times. They had six on the road in Game 2, and six more during Wednesday night’s overtime victory that left New York searching for answers to playing better defense in front of him.

Nash led the Rangers with 42 goals during the regular season, but only had two in 15 playoff games before Friday night. The 1-0 lead held up until the Lightning broke through during a frenzied stretch of the second period.