The Rangers’ resilient run is over.A brilliant Igor Shesterkin could not stave off elimination on Saturday night. He didn’t receive enough help from the skaters in front of him in a 2-1 Tampa Bay Lightning Game 6 win to take this Eastern Conference Final series four games to two.Steven Stamkos scored both goals for Tampa, including a painful third period game-winner to answer a late Ranger push.“Empty,” a despondent Chris Kreider said. “Very sad.”“I’m denying this right now,” center Mika Zibanejad said. “I don’t want it to be over.”Igor Shesterkin comes up big but can’t hold off the Lightning in the end. (Chris O’Meara/AP)The Rangers dropped four straight after going up 2-0 in the series with two victories at home. They have fallen short of their first Stanley Cup Final appearance since 2014.“It’s hard right now,” head coach Gerard Gallant said. “We played well, battled hard, had a chance to win all those games. And they found a way to get the big goals a the big time. But I’m proud of our guys. We competed every night.”Frank Vatrano’s game-tying power play goal 13:07 into the third period offered one last gasp from Gallant’s never-say-die group, creating a 1-1 tie that the Blueshirts frankly did not deserve.But Stamkos answered 21 seconds later on a break-in, with his second goal of the night, to put Tampa up and away. Stamkos got behind Jacob Trouba and received a pretty pass from Nikita Kucherov to generate the pivotal chance.It was only fitting that Shesterkin made the initial save with his glove, only to lose a fluky rebound off Stamkos’ left knee and into the back of the net.A Rangers team that had entered 5-0 in elimination games this playoffs, that had overcome 3-2 deficits in their first two series against the Pittsburgh Penguins and Carolina Hurricanes, ran out of bounces to create.“You got to give them credit: That’s a heck of a team over there and they deserved the first two,” Stamkos told ESPN of the Rangers. “We just stuck with it. There’s no panic on this team.”Zibanejad, ineffective for most of the night, put the final shot on Andre Vasilevskiy’s right pad from the left circle with Shesterkin pulled for the extra skater in the final seconds. But it was too little, too late.Gallant admitted that playing 20 games in 40 got to his team, through fatigue and injuries, and said the workload was “definitely” responsible for their lack of offense recently.“There’s no doubt it showed up,” Gallant said. “We go seven [games against Pittsburgh], seven [games against Carolina], really no breaks … Guys don’t get a chance to heal much. We battled hard and did the best we could.”Look no further than top defenseman Adam Fox, who was clearly laboring through some undisclosed injury the past couple games, without his typical jump in his step.Fox posted a blistering 23 points in the first 17 games of these playoffs and none in the last three.“Guys got tired,” Trouba said. “That’s a lot of hockey in a short amount of time. It’s hard, physical hockey. A lot of guys with some courageous efforts, playing through some injuries and putting it on the line. So yeah, guys were feeling it I’d say.”The Lightning advance to take on the Colorado Avalanche in the Stanley Cup Final, in search of their third straight championship. Tampa now stands alone in third place all-time with 11 consecutive playoff series won across the past three seasons.Only the Islanders (19 series from 1980-84) and Montreal Canadiens (13 series from 1976-80) have won more in a row in the history of the NHL.Jon Cooper’s Lightning snapped a tie with the Canadiens’ 10 from 1956-60.Tampa now has thwarted a New York Cup run in the Eastern Conference Final in back-to-back years, dispatching the Islanders in seven games in 2021 and the Rangers in six this spring.Shesterkin stopped Brandon Hagel twice on the doorstep in the third period, though, and was fantastic all night.He made a habit of denying breakaways for a full 60 minutes, with the Rangers surrendering Grade-A chances to Tampa all night.The Rangers ended the series scoring only one even strength goal in the final four games of the series, though.Kreider, with a hint of tears in his eyes, said all he’s known is elite goaltending at this stage, from Shesterkin to Henrik Lundqvist.“I’ve been really lucky to have arguably the best goaltending in the world my entire time here, and the guys have always given us a chance,” he said.Unfortunately, the Rangers couldn’t generate enough offense to keep this unexpected and thrilling run alive.Shesterkin’s lone blemish through 40 minutes came when Stamkos’ 48-foot wrist shot slipped over his right pad and under his blocker at 10:43 of the second period for a 1-0 Lightning lead.And that only happened after hobbled second-line center Ryan Strome didn’t challenge Stamkos in the neutral zone, gaining speed before firing his shot under Ryan Lindgren’s stick.Strome would sit the entire third period, ruled out with a lower body injury.The 1-0 Lightning lead felt worse than the score. The game was only still within reach because of the Rangers’ all-world goalie.Shesterkin made five stops on shots from point blank range in the second period alone, denying Anthony Cirelli and Kucherov with his left pad and glove, stopping Pat Maroon with his right pad, and stoning Ondrej Palat and Killorn bearing down on a scoreless Tampa power play.Lightning top defenseman Victor Hedman left the ice temporarily midway through the period after taking an Alexis Lafreniere hit to the chin, but the Rangers weren’t able to capitalize in his absence.Zibanejad had the puck hop off his stick on two chances in the slot.Trouba put a clean, tone-setting hit on Corey Perry early in the second period. And Gallant abandoned his poorly-conceived early game forward lines early in the middle frame, reuniting Zibanejad and Kreider, rather than spreading his big guns out.But the Blueshirts put only six shots on goal in the entire second period. The Lightning had 23 shots on goal to the Rangers’ 13 after two, and a lopsided 50-23 shot attempts advantage heading to the third.Gallant had assembled an unusual starting lineup. He scratched young winger Kaapo Kakko for the first time all playoffs and broke up The Kid line, which had received less playing time in recent games.The coach dressed fourth-line wing Dryden Hunt instead for the first time since Game 3 of the first round series against the Penguins. Gallant’s new forward line combinations were uninspiring, however, and the Lightning jumped all over the visitors.Top regular season scorers Zibanejad, Kreider and Artemi Panarin were all broken up and spread out on the Blueshirts’ top three lines, as if Gallant was willing to sacrifice offense for balance.The Rangers’ coach wouldn’t discuss his lineup decisions at all after the game.“I’m not gonna talk about it,” he said. “Today’s not the right time. For me.”Tampa registered 25 shot attempts to the Rangers’ 12 in the first period, with an 11-7 shots on goal advantage through the first 20 minutes.The Pinstripe ExpressWeeklyThe Daily News sports editors handpick the week’s best Yankees stories from our award-winning columnists and beat writers. Delivered to your inbox every Wednesday. Shesterkin was the only reason the game remained a scoreless tie after one.The Rangers’ biggest play of the period was Shesterkin’s left pad stop on a Cirelli backhand break-in at 18:58.Lafreniere put a backhand on Vasilevskiy from in close at 15:58 of the first off a nice pass from Zibanejad, who was centering Lafreniere and Vatrano in the first.But the Rangers’ chances were few and far between, and not very threatening.It seemed obvious from puck drop that the end of the Rangers’ season was near.The good news? This team is young, and they expect to be back here soon.“It was obviously a lot of good experience,” Fox said of the postseason run. “Wish for a better ending, but definitely promising for our team.”
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