Dominic Moore scores late in Rangers’ Game 1 win over Lightning

The New York Rangers aren’t the same team the Tampa Bay Lightning dominated in the regular season.

Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals showed that.

Dominic Moore scored with 2:25 to play and the Rangers defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-1 Saturday to move within three wins of returning to the Stanley Cup finals.

The game-winning goal came just 30 seconds after Moore stepped out of the penalty box, and it capped another nail-biter for the Rangers, who have played 15 consecutive one-goal games in the postseason.

The Rangers have won nine games this postseason and have seven victories by a 2-1 score.

The series opener was unlike any of the three games between the Rangers and Lightning in the regular season. Tampa Bay won all three by a combined 15-7 margin.

Derek Stepan, who scored the Game 7 winner against Washington on Wednesday night, also scored and Henrik Lundqvist made 23 saves.

Ondrej Palat tied the game on a power-play goal early in the third period. Ben Bishop had 28 saves for the Lightning in losing to New York for the first time in nine games.

Game 2 will be played at Madison Square Garden on Monday night.

The Rangers took three penalties in the third period and they seemed to be in trouble when Moore swung his stick and took former Ranger Anton Stralman down with 4:55 to play in regulation.

The Lightning only got one shot on the power play and it ended with the Rangers getting a 3-on-1 break into the Tampa Bay zone.

Kevin Hayes eventually got the puck in the left corner and for a while it seemed as if he was going to take a bad-angle shot.

However, he fed the puck through the crease and Moore came out from behind the net and knocked it in for his first goal of the postseason.