(New York) Read the reports of the games played Tuesday in the NHL.
Posted yesterday at 10:58 p.m.
Mika Zibanejad scored twice, including the decisive third-period goal on the power play, as the New York Rangers edged the Tampa Bay Lightning 3-1 on Tuesday in the season opener of the NHL on North American soil.
Barclay Goodrow also hit the target for the New York club. Vezina Trophy holder Igor Shesterkin stopped 26 shots in the win.
Rangers kicked off the new season with a win over the team that knocked them out of the playoffs last year in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Steven Stamkos, the Lightning’s lone scorer, beat Shesterkin with a powerful one-timer on the power play. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 36 saves.
Zibanejad, who scored a shorthanded goal in the second period on an accurate backhand shot, came back on the charge in the third period.
The Swede gave Rangers a 2-1 lead in the third period with a slap shot from the left circle after a pass from Artemi Panarin. The Russian winger, who is entering his fourth season with Rangers, thus obtained his 250e point with the Big Apple club.
Goodrow doubled the lead when he deflected Ryan Lindren’s point shot with nine minutes left in the game.
Rangers dominated in shots on goal in the first (14-8) and second periods (18-8).
Rangers right wing Vitali Kravtsov headed for the locker room midway through the first period after being knocked down by Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman. Rangers announced early in the second period that he would not return due to an upper body injury.