Moore scores late, Rangers beat Lightning 2-1 in Game 1

NEW YORK (AP) -- 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.

Bishop could only look up to the ceiling at Madison Square Garden, feeling he probably should have prevented the pass from getting through.

The crowd erupted, the fans celebrated and the Rangers ran out the final minutes without incident.

Tampa Bay tied the game at 1-all early in the third period with Rangers captain Ryan McDonagh off for high sticking.

Palat, who had a couple of good scoring chances late in the second period, took a cross-ice pass from Tyler Johnson and beat Lundqvist with a shot from the right circle.

The Lightning blocked 14 shots in the first two periods, and one of them led to Stepan's second big goal in as many games.

With the second period winding down, Chris Kreider got the puck between the circles, waited a second to find a lane for a shot.

Either Andrej Sustr or Valtteri Filppula blocked the shot and the puck rolled toward the crease slowly, where Stepan ripped it past Bishop for his fourth goal of the postseason.

Lundqvist wasn't under as much pressure as Bishop in the first two periods. His best stops came late in the second period against Palat, stopping a deflection in front and later a shot between the circles.

The goaltender also seemed to have a little fun in the period when he used his mask to turn aside a deflection that Filppula made with a high stick.

Bishop's best stop was a pad save on a rebound attempt in close by J.T. Miller on a short power play early in the second period.

The 6-foot-7 goaltender stopped all 11 shots in the first period, including a breakaway by Stepan eight minutes into the game. He was lucky, too. He gave away the puck late in the period to Derick Brassard and hit the crossbar on the ensuing pass.

The postseason series is the first between the teams and it has drawn interest because of the trade that sent Martin St. Louis to New York for Ryan Callahan in an exchange of captains last year.

Neither did much in the game, although Callahan played despite having an appendectomy on Monday.

NOTES: Former Rangers C Brian Boyle was scratched with an undisclosed injury. His status is day to day. ... Callahan skated on the third line with Jonathan Marchessault and Cedric Paquette.