Lightning vs. Rangers: Game 5 Score and Twitter Reaction from 2015 NHL Playoffs

The Tampa Bay Lightning took a 3-2 series lead over the New York Rangers Sunday night in the Eastern Conference Final following a 2-0 win in Madison Square Garden.

Serious questions were being asked of the Rangers—Henrik Lundqvist in particular—after they allowed six goals each in Games 2 and 3 and fell behind in the series.

Then, New York won Game 4 in dominating fashion, and Lundqvist made 38 saves.

All of a sudden, the Lightning and their goaltender Ben Bishop were under the microscope.

"You don't ever want to give up 10 goals in two games, but we did, and now we have to go back and look at it and adjust," said Bishop, per Howie Kussoy of the New York Post. "I felt pretty good, but obviously, you have to make the save here and there. It's a long year, there's a lot of ups and downs."

In keeping with the theme of the series, Bishop and his teammates answered the call. The 28-year-old goalie was one of the biggest reasons for the win, making 26 saves.

ESPN's Linda Cohn thought the Lightning defense as a whole did well to ensure Bishop wasn't tested on a regular basis.

The game remained deadlocked through the first period and for much of the second.

Valtteri Filppula drew first blood with roughly six-and-a-half minutes left until the third period. Anton Stralman unleashed an incisive pass up to Steven Stamkos, who found Filppula in space in the center of the ice. Filppula took his time to measure the shot and fired it past Lundqvist.

Surrendering the goal was likely all the more frustrating for New York since it arguably looked the stronger team to that point in the game. The Rangers had a few chances for themselves upon which they failed to capitalize.

ESPN's Keith Olbermann was particularly disappointed with the Rangers' performance in power-play situations. (New York finished 0-of-4 on the night.):

Olbermann's colleague felt New York was trying to be too intricate with its attacking moves and should've emphasized simplicity over beauty:

NHL.com's Dan Rosen added that the goal helped Tampa Bay gain more of a foothold on the game:

If the Lightning didn't have the lion's share of momentum after Filppula's tally, then they certainly did after Stamkos made it a 2-0 game 18:22 into the second period.

Tampa Bay was on the power play and the Rangers were struggling to deal with being down a man. The Lightning overextended New York with great passing, which allowed Stamkos to get open in front of goal. Ondrej Palat did the heavy lifting with his assist to the 25-year-old center.

ESPN.com's Pierre LeBrun made note of Stamkos' current run of form:

Corey Masisak of NHL.com figured that the critics who were hounding Stamkos earlier in the postseason are eating some crow right about now:

Those two goals proved to be enough as the offensive problems that plagued the Rangers at points during this postseason reared their ugly head again Sunday night. New York outshot Tampa Bay 26-22, but that didn't matter because the Rangers couldn't find the finishing touch.

Their biggest failure was being unable to make the most of their strong stretch early in Game 5. Goals generally change games, and that was exactly the case Sunday night as the pendulum swung completely in Tampa Bay's favor after Filppula found the net.

Puck Daddy's Greg Wyshynski argued that New York shouldn't worry just yet because Lundqvist is money in playoff elimination games:

SportsNet New York's Steve Gelbs agreed that any talk of the Rangers being out of the series completely is premature:

Lundqvist himself remained confident after the game, per Seth Rothman of Insidehockey.com:

Game 6 is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET Tuesday night in Amalie Arena. The Lightning may have the benefit of a home crowd behind them, but home-ice advantage hasn't provided much of a boost in the series with both teams owning road wins.

In addition, the way the momentum has shifted through the first five games leads you to believe the Eastern Conference Final is destined for seven.