Krenn: Three Things we learned from taking both games in Tampa

Just like that, the Eastern Conference Final is a best-of-three series.
The Tampa Bay Lightning skated to a big 4-1 win over the New York Rangers in Game 4 on Tuesday night to get the series evened up at two apiece. Tampa Bay got goals from Pat Maroon, Nikita Kucherov, Steven Stamkos, and Ondrej Palat in the win.

It was a really strong start for the Lightning, who got the first goal of the game from Maroon just 2:38 into the contest.
It was a great play from everyone involved. Pierre-Edouard Bellemare showed some great patience before he made a nice pass all the way across the neutral zone to Zach Bogosian. The number three overall pick in the 2008 NHL Draft, Bogosian showed off his skill after skating past Ryan Reaves and making a beautiful toe-drag move around Justin Braun.
After he got around Braun, Bogosian fired a backhand shot on Igor Shesterkin, who made the initial save, but Maroon was right there to jump on the rebound and backhand it into the back of the net to put the Lightning up by one.
The Bolts couldn't have asked for a much better start with the crowd already buzzing well before the opening faceoff even occurred. After Maroon scored his third goal of the playoffs, AMALIE Arena was even louder and Tampa Bay fed off that energy.
The Lightning out-chanced the Rangers in the first 20 minutes, but couldn't find the back of the net a second time and went into the first intermission with a 1-0 lead.
Tampa Bay sat back on their heels a little bit in the second period, but Andrei Vasilevskiy was there when they needed him to make a big save. The Bolts made sure to give their goaltender a little added support with 6:53 left in the second period off the stick of Kucherov.
After Kucherov nearly scored his seventh goal of the postseason, the Rangers were able to clear the puck out of the zone and force the Lightning to regroup. New York may not have expected Tampa Bay to regroup as fast as they did, as Palat fed a perfect pass through the neutral zone that sprung Kucherov back into the Rangers zone before he ripped a quick shot through the five hole of Shesterkin to push the lead to 2-0.
Heading into the third period with a 2-0 lead, everyone in the building knew that the next goal would be a big one. Once again, it was Palat making a great play to set up the Lightning's third goal of the game and give them a commanding lead in the final period.
After taking a pass from Jan Rutta, Palat stepped into the right circle and fired a shot on Shesterkin, who once again gave up a rebound before Stamkos jumped on the loose puck and gave Tampa Bay their third goal of the game with 15:04 left in regulation.
New York was able to get one goal back on the power play with Shesterkin pulled and 3:33 left in the game, but Palat was there once again to ice the game for the Lightning with an empty-net goal, his seventh tally of the playoffs, tied with Stamkos and Kucherov for the team lead.
It was a vintage playoff performance from Tampa Bay, who look like they are beginning to find their stride after the long layoff following the Second Round sweep over the Florida Panthers.
Now, it's a best-of-three series as the Bolts head back to New York for Game 5. Before that, here's three things we learned from a 4-1 win over the Rangers.

1. CLEANING THINGS UP
After a sloppy start to the Eastern Conference Final following over a week-long layoff between games, the Lightning look like they're starting to find their game again.
The first two games were uncharacteristic performances for Tampa Bay, with the Bolts recording 20-plus giveaways for the first time this postseason in both Games 1 and 2.
While the Lightning will never use the long break as an excuse for the losses, they will admit that it was a little bit difficult to jump right back into playoff hockey, let alone the Eastern Conference Final. At the end of the day, you can scrimmage and practice hard, but it's basically impossible to replicate playoff hockey in practice.
"Don't underestimate how hard it is to play in the playoffs, extreme intense games, and then take those days off," said Tampa Bay head coach Jon Cooper. "You can't replicate that coming in. We're playing a really strong Rangers team who've come off a couple of big, emotional series wins.
"They went right in and took it to us. Clearly, we had some puck management issues. We weren't tired. We were just making some poor decisions.
"If you want to move on, you have to tighten that stuff up. We have.
"Are we perfect? No. But are we giving ourselves a chance? We are.
"Now we've just got to go do it in their building."
The Rangers had a one-day break between Game 7 of their Second Round series against the Carolina Hurricanes and Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final. They never had the opportunity to get out of playoff mode.
Now four games into the series, it's clear that the Bolts have found their legs and got their game cleaned up.
"I don't think we were really satisfied or encouraged with our effort the first two games," Stamkos said. "We knew we were going to make some adjustments and the coaching staff threw together a game plan and something that isn't new to us, but something that we just need to focus on a little more.
"I think we've gone out and executed that. The urgency's been up, obviously. We come back in front of our home fans and play two pretty solid hockey games, so we've got ourselves squared up in this series. It's great. It's much better than the position we were in a couple days ago.
"This is where it gets down to the really tough stuff, is these next couple games. We've got to go on the road and we've got to find a way to win a game in their barn.
"We're looking forward to that challenge, but I really like where our game is now compared to where it was a couple days ago."
There was a lot of consistency on display from the Lightning in Games 3 and 4. Breakouts were much cleaner and crisper. Pucks were getting behind New York's defensemen and the forecheck was generating extended offensive zone time.
"Consistency," said Victor Hedman. "Obviously staying out of the box really helps. We've liked our game 5-on-5 all playoffs. If we can keep it like that, we like our chances.
"It's more about executing what we're doing. I think the first two games, we were all in agreement that we didn't execute. We were a little sloppy with the puck and that's been a lot better. That usually leads to less turnovers and less chances against.
"If we keep doing that, we're in good shape."
Tampa Bay has been pretty dominant at 5-on-5 this series, despite dropping the first two games at Madison Square Garden. At 5-on-5, the Lightning have generated more high-danger scoring chances than the Rangers in every game of this series.
In Game 1, the Bolts had 57.1% of the high-danger scoring chances. In Game 2, it was 52.6%. Game 3 saw the number jump all the way to 73.7% before the Lightning mustered up 70% of the high-danger chances in Tuesday's Game 4 win.
"We've progressively gotten better and I think we took some more positive steps tonight," said Cooper. "We had a bit of a layoff and I think now, we're starting to find our game.
"Now, we just have to keep this going in New York."

2. HAGES THROWING HANDS
With the Lightning leading 1-0 in the second period, the Rangers were starting to push. New York outshot Tampa Bay 12-7 in the middle frame and it felt like the Bolts needed some kind of spark to get things back on track.
That spark came from trade deadline acquisition Brandon Hagel.
Following a whistle in the Lightning end with 8:37 left in the period, Hagel dropped the gloves with Frank Vatrano in a spirited scrap with both players throwing some heavy punches.
"He's a character," said Lightning forward Pat Maroon when asked about Hagel's fight. "It's awesome, especially those guys, Vatrano and him.
"They had a good tilt. They're just swinging away. They're swinging for the fences and those are fun fights to watch and obviously it's fun for us because you never see guys like that fight, so it gets the boys going.
"He had a little hype for the fans there at the end."
Following his fight, Hagel skated to the penalty box, but not before raising his arms and calling for more noise from the crowd at AMALIE Arena. The crowd was already fired up from the scrap, but after Hagel asked for more noise, the building erupted.
It was as loud as it had been since the game-opening goal and the Lightning used that momentum to grab the 2-0 lead. It was just 1:44 after Hagel's fight when Kucherov doubled the lead for the Bolts.
"It was great," said Stamkos. "The crowd got going. The bench got going. You don't see a lot of fights come playoff time, but Hages is a competitor. He's not going to back down.
"That was big. It certainly gave the bench some energy and it got the crowd fired up. It's never a bad thing when you have those two going for you and I think we scored when he was in the box, too, if I can remember correctly, so it was a good swing for our group."
Hagel has been a great addition for the Lightning this postseason. It's been pretty incredible the way Tampa Bay general manager Julien BriseBois and his staff have been able to acquire what feels like the perfect players at the trade deadline.
Hagel and Nick Paul have both been exceptional additions to the Lightning's roster. It's almost like BriseBois and his staff knew exactly the kind of players they needed as the trade deadline approached.
It was Paul who scored both goals for the Bolts in Game 7 against the Maple Leafs. Hagel has been a key piece for Tampa Bay all postseason with his speed, tenacity on the forecheck, and team-first mentality.
"It takes courage to get in a fight and that kid has it," said Cooper. "He takes hits to make plays. Just to play on that line, he's on the ice with some darn good players on our team and their team. There's a lot of responsibility there.
"He's getting some looks and that's what I like about it. Are pucks going in right now? They haven't, but he's checking. He's getting looks. He's working.
"In the end, he's a pain in the butt to play against and a team-first guy and he's a warrior out there. He's been a great add for us."

3. VASY'S MOJO
Does Andrei Vasilevskiy have his game back after the long break? Cooper seems to think so.
"He's getting his mojo back," said Cooper. "If anybody in this layoff probably got hurt, it was probably him because now you're taken out of your rhythm. Now he's got some games under his belt and looks great."
We've seen it time and time again. When the Lightning need Vasilevskiy, he steps up in the biggest moments.
After recording two sub-.900 save percentages in Games 1 and 2 in New York, Vasilevskiy responded in a big way. The 'Big Cat' stopped 62 of 65 shots in Games 3 and 4 for a .954 save percentage over the two games.
It's never a doubt with Vasilevskiy. When it's all said and done and he calls it a career, he will undoubtedly go down as one of the greatest goaltenders to ever play and number 88 will be hanging in the rafters of AMALIE Arena.
Hedman was asked if he thinks that Vasilevskiy is finding his mojo again.
"I don't think he ever lost it," said Hedman. "Sometimes we rely a little too much on him.
"Vasy's a competitor. He's the best goalie in the world for a reason.
"We knew he was going to bounce back like the rest of the team and he sure did in these two games."
Leading a game 3-0, I'm not sure if there is any goalie you'd rather have behind you than Vasilevskiy. He consistently makes huge saves, but more importantly, he makes the timely saves when his team needs them most. He's a world-class goaltender.
"He's obviously been the best goaltender in the world the last number of years," said Bogosian. "It's comforting as a defenseman knowing that he's behind you and you just know he's going to come up with big saves at key moments in the game.
"Obviously, his body of work is impressive, but we're not surprised at this point with what he's done and what he's proved over the last number of years."
For a guy that is arguably the best goalie on the planet, Vasilevskiy's humility is extremely admirable. After standing on his head with a 49-save shutout to close out the series against Florida, Vasilevskiy was asked about giving up one goal in his past seven series-clinching games.
"Nothing special, really," said Vasilevskiy. "I think it's how the whole team has played during those games.
"Just such a great effort by everybody on our team and it's obviously not just me. I'm just trying to do my job as best as I can and guys, all four games like that, they just played fearless."
It's one thing to be a star athlete. It's another to be a star and be as humble as Vasilevskiy is. He's a role model for young hockey players around the world, not just for his play in the crease, but also his attitude off the ice.
With stars like Stamkos, Kucherov, Hedman, and many others, the Lightning have an extraordinarily talented group. The most important of them all may be Vasilevskiy, who Kucherov has called Tampa Bay's best player.
While Kucherov may be right, I think Alex Killorn summed it up best with Vasilevskiy.
"Whenever you have him, you'll always have a chance," said Killorn.
He's absolutely right.