Coming off an emotional loss that knocked them out of first place Authentic Carl Gunnarsson Jersey , the Tampa Bay Lightning took a little while to get going against the New York Rangers.

They eventually found their stride.

Brayden Point and Cedric Paquette each scored two goals, and Tampa Bay stopped a three-game slide with a 7-3 victory Friday night.

J.T. Miller contributed a power-play goal in the third period as the Lightning regained first place in the Atlantic Division and the Eastern Conference with 108 points. Dan Girardi also scored against his former team, Alex Killorn had a goal and an assist, and backup goalie Louis Domingue made 28 saves.

”We got better as the game went along,” star forward Steven Stamkos said. ”We wanted to get the two points and we got it and we’ll continue to move on.”

The Lightning fell from the top spot for the first time since mid-October when they lost to the Bruins on Thursday night. They scored a total of four goals during their losing streak.

”It was a tough first for us, just to get our legs back, but I like the way we responded in the second and third and the guys did what they had to do,” coach Jon Cooper said.

Leading 2-1 entering the third period, Miller, Paquette and Point scored in the first 2:38 to blow the game open.

Miller jammed in a rebound of Victor Hedman’s shot from the point 35 seconds into the period. Hedman finished with two assists.

”It felt nice,” Miller said of scoring against his former team. ”It was hard with a lot of emotions and thoughts coming into this game. You just want to go out and play your game and luckily, got one to come on my stick in front of the net.”

Paquette added his second of the game when he took a pass from Cory Conacher and sent his shot off the post and into the net. Point finished the run 45 seconds later when he scored his 29th of the season on a 3-on-1 break.

Point added his second of the game on an empty-netter, and Girardi scored a power-play goal in the final minute.

New York rookie Filip Chytil got his first NHL goal. Chris Kreider and Brady Skjei also scored for the Rangers, and Ondrej Pavelec made 43 saves.

Tampa Bay’s only visit to Madison Square Garden this season came in the Rangers’ home finale.

Before the game, the Rangers played a video tribute honoring Ryan McDonagh, Girardi and Miller. McDonagh, a former captain, spent parts of eight seasons with the Rangers before being traded at the February deadline with Miller. Girardi played nearly 800 games with the Rangers over parts of 11 years.

”A month ago, I didn’t expect to have to play this game,” Miller said. ”You try to keep it together during the game as much as possible.

”A lot of good friends there on the other side so you try to keep it serious and professional during the game. It was a cool experience what they did for me here.”

The Rangers opened the scoring in the first period when defenseman Skjei wristed a shot from the top of the right circle past Domingue at 14:59 for his fourth of the season.

Paquette tied it for the Lightning early in the second. Mikhail Sergachev took a shot from the point and Paquette poked in the loose puck for his fourth goal at 3:15.

Just 1:18 later, Killorn gave the Lightning a 2-1 lead with his 15th goal. Anthony Cirelli sent a pass to Killorn in the slot. Killorn sent it on net and knocked in his own rebound.

Domingue preserved the lead when he made a sliding pad save on Kreider on a Rangers power play midway through the period.

Chytil scored when he knocked in Mats Zuccarello’s shot that banked off the end boards at 8:14 of the third.

”Zukey shoots and it was a rebound and empty net, so I’m excited I scored my first goal finally,” Chytil said.

Stamkos and Rangers forward Pavel Buchnevich had an unexpected fight after the first period after Buchnevich tripped Nikita Kucherov. Buchnevich got a minor for tripping and a fighting major. Stamkos got an instigating minor Ryan Kesler Jersey , fighting major and a 10-minute misconduct.

”Stuff happens in the game and I thought Kuch got clipped and just responding,” Stamkos said.

NOTES: Goalie Henrik Lundqvist won the 30th annual Steven McDonald Extra Effort Award. The award is presented to the Ranger who ”goes above and beyond the call of duty” as chosen by fans. The award, given annually since the 1987-88 season, is named after New York City Police Detective Steven McDonald, who was shot and injured in the line of duty on July 12, 1986, and died on Jan. 10, 2017. … The Rangers finished 21-16-4 at home this season.

UP NEXT

Lightning: Host Nashville on Sunday.

Rangers: Travel to Carolina to face the Hurricanes on Saturday night.

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Alex Ovechkin is built like a linebacker with the motor of a steam engine and the mentality of a wrecking ball.

He can score like no other player of this generation and few in history and has the physicality to match. That was evident from his first NHL shift when he powered up ice and crushed Columbus defenseman Radoslav Suchy so hard it knocked out the stanchion between the panes of plexiglass.

Ovechkin at 32 is no longer the human bulldozer he once was, but his hard-hitting style never put a dent in his prime years as he became the fourth-fastest player to 600 goals . On Sunday in Pittsburgh, the Washington Capitals‘ 2004 No. 1 pick will be the first player from that draft class to play 1,000 NHL regular-season games, a testament to his durability that is also difficult to duplicate in modern hockey.

”That he has reached 1,000 games this quickly is an amazing accomplishment with the way he plays,” Capitals owner Ted Leonsis said. ”These are big men, and the league has gotten faster but it’s also gotten much more fit, and that Alex has been able to span those generations and continue to play and be incredibly productive is really a historic feat.”

In 13 seasons, Ovechkin has missed more than four games only once and never missed more than 10. Take out the eight games for suspensions and the Russian winger has only sat out for injury 21 times out of a possible 1,028.

”I heard a couple years ago that he said he’s the Russian Machine,” longtime teammate Nicklas Backstrom said. ”That probably has something to do with it.”

Ovechkin brushed off an injury in his second season with the now-famous line, ”Russian machine never breaks.” Ovechkin has played through knee and back pain and finished one playoff series on a fractured foot, illustrating his pain tolerance while also avoiding the kinds of serious injuries that derail other players’ careers.

Goaltender Braden Holtby pointed out that it helps Ovechkin to not kill penalties and risk injuries in those situations while also marveling at how the Moscow native is built. His 6-foot-3, 235-pound frame gives him the tools to punish opponents with his body as much as his shot.

”When you’re big guy like Ovi, you’re not gonna be afraid to hit no one Christine Michael Sr Jersey ,” Capitals center Evgeny Kuznetsov said. ”And when people gonna hit you, they’re gonna feel it, for sure.”

When Barry Trotz coached in Nashville, he remembered players seeing Ovechkin down the hallway cutting his stick and whispering about how big he was. Ovechkin had that intimidating presence to him.

”Trust me, we had a lot of nervous defensemen,” Trotz said. ”We had a couple of nervous cats.”

Watching Ovechkin’s sometimes reckless play could have at one point made the Capitals nervous, too, because of how valuable he is and how important it is he stay healthy. In recent years, he has toned it down with age and as hockey has gotten faster with lower priorities on hitting.

”As soon as you get a little older, you realize when you have to get a hit and when you have to take a hit,” Ovechkin said. ”You can see right now in the playoffs it’s different hockey. Of course, every shift you try to do something out there, but in the regular year you don’t have to run around and hit everybody because if a game is 5-2 or 4-1 you don’t have to do it. Obviously you have to play smarter and try to do different things.”

Evolving his game as a scorer and a power forward has helped Ovechkin get to this point where he’s on the verge of leading the league in goals for the seventh time and reach 50 for the eighth time.

If Ovechkin, who still has Stanley Cup aspirations and three years left on his contract, maintains this level of durability and wants to keep playing in North America toward age 40, reaching 1,500 games isn’t out of the question.

”There are a lot of players that have played 1,000 games but not as many players have scored 600 goals,” Leonsis said. ”If he takes cares of himself – which he has been, he looks great – he can play a lot of years in the league.”

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