Tampa Bay Lightning at New York Rangers

Mika Zibanejad scores twice, Igor Shesterkin makes 27 saves and Rangers down Lightning 4-0

Vincent Trocheck and Chris Kreider also scored for the Rangers, who missed the playoffs a year after winning the Presidents’ Trophy as the league’s best team.

The Lightning host the defending-champion Florida Panthers in the first game of a first-round Stanley Cup playoff series on Tuesday.

Trocheck scored his 26th goal this season — his sixth short-handed — at 1:02 of the middle period. The Rangers lead the NHL with 18 short-handed goals this season.

Kreider scored at 4:02 of the third to make it 2-0 then Zibanejad scored at 12:50 and 16:24.

The shutout was the sixth this season for Shesterkin, who finished with a career-worst 27-29-5 mark.

The playoff-bound Lightning finished with 47 wins and 102 points.

Lightning netminder Jonas Johansson made 19 saves.

Takeaways Rangers: New York ended with a 19-19-3 home record. Last season, they were 30-11-0 at Madison Square Garden.

Lightning: Jake Guentzel played his 600th career game. The 30-year-old forward had 41 goals and 39 assists in his first season with the Lightning.

Key moment Every Ranger wore a blue No. 40 jersey with “Rosen” on the back during warmups to honor Hall of Fame broadcaster Sam Rosen, who called his final game after 40 years as the team’s television play-by-play voice. The jerseys also included a patch on the front with Rosen’s famous call: “It’s a Power Play Goal!”

Key stat Tampa Bay has made the postseason eight straight seasons and since 2014-15 they lead the league with 146 postseason games and 87 playoff wins. The Lightning won back-to-back Cups in 2020 and 2021 and lost to Colorado in the 2022 Final.

TB wins series 2-1