Lightning vs. Rangers: Game 2 Score and Twitter Reaction from 2015 NHL Playoffs

The Tampa Bay Lightning went into Madison Square Garden and laid a beatdown on the New York Rangers Monday night, tying the Eastern Conference Final at 1-1 with a 6-2 victory in Game 2.

Lightning center Tyler Johnson was the star of the night. The 24-year-old recorded the first postseason hat trick in team history, per NHL Public Relations:

The Rangers drew first blood in the series with a 2-1 Game 1 victory, as Dominic Moore scored the decisive goal with just over two minutes remaining in the third period.

Lightning head coach Jon Cooper didn't mince words in his critique of his team's Game 1 performance, per Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times:

"

There's the times you think you played okay, and you watch the tape and you want to vomit. And that was a little bit of how (Saturday) went. For two periods I thought we were a little better than we were until I watched the tape. The Rangers played extremely well, but we were stubbing our toe all night. So we were just handing them tickets to the movie, and we were a turnstile and watching them go by. We can't do that.

We've got to be much better than we were. And I'm quite convinced we will.

"

Cooper's players took that to heart as they gained the upper hand on New York in the first period. Johnson scored twice in the opening frame—bookending a Chris Kreider tally for the Rangers—to give the Lightning an early 2-1 edge.

His first goal came courtesy of a mistake by Martin St. Louis. During a power play for New York, St. Louis gave the puck away in his own half, which allowed Johnson and teammate Alex Killorn a breakaway opportunity. Johnson finished off the play after his initial shot was saved, firing home just a fraction of a second before St. Louis knocked the net out of position.

The Rangers had a two-man advantage on the play but still couldn't keep the puck out of their own goal. NHL.com's Dan Rosen felt New York's initial mistake was not having Rick Nash on the ice for the power play:

Kreider got the Rangers back on level terms, but later in the period, Johnson fired home his second goal to put Tampa Bay back in front. Dan Girardi initially blocked Steven Stamkos' slap shot, but that didn't fully repel the danger, especially with New York down a man.

The Lightning worked the puck around to Johnson, who had a point-blank opportunity to go top shelf on Henrik Lundqvist.

Johnson wrapped up his hat trick at the 8:17 mark of the second period. Ondrej Palat's slap shot hit the post and Johnson came in to clean up the mess in front of the goal. If he wouldn't have finished the job, then teammate Nikita Kucherov likely would have.

With Tampa Bay jumping out to a 3-1 lead, you could almost hear a pin drop inside Madison Square Garden.

According to Liam McHugh of NBC Sports, Johnson joins a relatively small group of recent players to score goals of the shorthanded, power-play and full-strength varieties in the same game:

Derek Stepan breathed some life into the building when he scored to make it a 3-2 game with a little under six minutes left in the second period. It was a bit of nifty stick work from the center, as he banked his shot in off Lightning defenseman Braydon Coburn.

Stepan certainly left the Rangers with more than enough time to even the score. Unfortunately for them, Killorn scored just 3:09 into the third period to restore the Lightning's two-goal advantage. New York's defense was carved wide open, as Victor Hedman's pass left Killorn with essentially a tap-in.

Puck Daddy's Greg Wyshynski wanted to make sure Hedman received his due praise for the assist:

Stamkos added a fifth Lightning goal at 6:28 for good measure just to make sure the Rangers were down for good. But five goals weren't enough for Tampa Bay, so it added a sixth courtesy of Killorn to complete the scoring at 6-2. ESPN's Linda Cohn chalked it up as one of New York's worst showings in the playoffs this year:

Remarkably, Tampa Bay's had 11 fewer shots than the Rangers but still scored six goals. It just goes to show that efficiency is almost always more valuable than volume. The Lightning waited for their opportunities Monday night and unleashed maximum damage.

As Seth Rothman of InsideHockey.com noted, the defeat ends what was an impressive streak of one-goal games for the Rangers:

Tampa Bay also continues to be a thorn in the side of New York goaltender Lundqvist, per ESPN Stats & Info:

Momentum is kind of a nebulous concept, but for whatever its value may be, the Lightning are in firm ownership of it as the series now shifts to Tampa.

Of course, it looked like the Lightning had firm control of its first-round series against the Detroit Red Wings following a 5-1 Game 2 win. Then Detroit shut the Lightning out 3-0 in Game 3. The Montreal Canadiens also made things interesting in the second round after falling down 0-3 in the series to Tampa Bay.

New York can't look back on this loss and dwell too much. After all, the series is only tied 1-1. There's a long way left to go, and it's way too early to count out the Rangers.