Rangers:52-24-6, 110 points; 4-3 to win first round against Pittsburgh Penguins; 4-3 to win second round against Carolina Hurricanes
Lightning: 51-23-8, 110 points; 4-3 to win first round against Toronto Maple Leafs; 4-0 to win second round against Florida Panthers
Season series:NYR 3-0-0; TBL 0-2-1
Game 1:Wednesday (8 p.m. ET; ESPN, CBC, SN, TVAS)
The Tampa Bay Lightning will resume their pursuit of history and the New York Rangers will try to continue their resilient run in the Stanley Cup Playoffs when they play the Eastern Conference Final.
The Lightning are on a quest to become the first team to win the Stanley Cup in three consecutive seasons since the New York Islanders won four straight championships from 1980-83. Tampa Bay's sweep of Florida in the best-of-7 second round was its 10th consecutive playoff series win.
"It's a special group, no doubt, and the beauty of the group is we're not satisfied," Lightning captain Steven Stamkos said. "We want 12 straight."
The Rangers aren't satisfied either after advancing to the conference final for the first time since 2015 with a 6-2 victory against the Hurricanes in Game 7 of the second round Monday. New York, which is 5-0 when facing elimination in the playoffs, trailed 2-0 and 3-2 in the series with Carolina after rallying from down 3-1 to defeat the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round.
The Lightning, who have been off since their 2-0 series-clinching victory in Game 4 against the Panthers on May 23, have won six consecutive games since falling behind 3-2 in the first round against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
"Obviously they're a great team," Rangers coach Gerard Gallant said. "They won two Cups. Jon Cooper is a great coach, good friend of mine. It should be a good battle. It should be a fun series. We played them well in the regular season, which means nothing. But we're looking forward to the challenge."
This is Lightning's sixth trip to the conference final/NHL Semifinals in eight seasons, a run that began with a seven-game victory against the Rangers in the 2015 Eastern Conference Final. Forwards Nikita Kucherov, Alex Killorn, Ondrej Palat and Stamkos, defenseman Victor Hedman and goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy, a rookie backup to Ben Bishop at the time, remain with Tampa Bay from that series. Forward Chris Kreider is the lone remaining Rangers player.