Lightning drop regular-season finale to Rangers while resting regulars

Eduardo A. Encina, Tampa Bay Times on Apr 15, 2026

Published in Hockey

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

TAMPA, Fla. — There wasn’t anything on the line for the Lightning in their regular-season finale against the Rangers Wednesday night at Benchmark International Arena. Going into Game 82, Tampa Bay’s first-round matchup with Montreal already had been set and it had gained home-ice advantage for the series.

So the 4-2 loss to the Rangers meant little. It was more about using the opportunity to get valuable rest for several key players who grinded their way to the regular-season’s finish line.

Brayden Point, Jake Guentzel, Anthony Cirelli, J.J. Moser and Ryan McDonagh all sat out, and even though Andrei Vasilevskiy practiced in the game net during the morning skate, Brandon Halverson got the start against the Rangers, the second of his NHL career.

The Lightning will flip the switch in a couple of days when the playoffs begin in Tampa — a schedule hasn’t been announced, but a Sunday start is likely — so Thursday’s game in many ways seemed not much more than procedural.

Nikita Kucherov did play, but his chase for a third straight Art Ross Trophy fell short, as he finished the season with 130 points, four shy of the Oilers’ Connor McDavid, who has one more game remaining on Thursday.

Defenseman Darren Raddysh, who missed the past two games, was back in the lineup, and left wing Brandon Hagel returned after missing Monday’s win over Detroit. The Lightning also activated defenseman Max Crozier from injured reserve and called up forwards Jakob Pelletier and Mitchell Chaffee from AHL Syracuse.

The Lightning went down 3-0 in the first 25 minutes, with Tye Kartye scoring the Rangers’ first two goals. Rookie Gabe Perreault gave New York a three-goal lead at 4:49 of the second period on a rising wrister from the center point that fooled Halverson.

Oliver Bjorkstrand scored for the first time in 19 games, staying with a loose puck in front of the net and beating Rangers goaltender Dylan Garand with a backhand shot with 8:45 left in the second for his 12th goal of the season and just his third at even strength.

Mika Zibanejad then answered with a goal in traffic from in front with 7:14 left in the second to extend the Rangers’ lead to 4-1.

Lightning forward Corey Perry made a nifty move to cut the lead to two early in the third, spinning away from Will Borgen at the left circle and backhanding a shot past Zemgus Girgensons’ screen in front and through Garand.