The puck struck the post, then Henrik Lundqvist’s back. He looked behind himself for it, but it had already fluttered into the crease. He tried steering it away with his glove, but the puck skittered free, there for the taking, winding up on the stick blade of the highest-scoring player in these N.H.L. playoffs.
Since coming within 101 seconds of elimination, the Rangers have trafficked in the most precious commodity of playoff hockey: luck. They have scavenged for loose pucks, preyed on bounces and refined their predatory instincts.
Enough goals have come that way, until they did not, until the puck caromed off Lundqvist midway through the second period Monday night and lay there for Tyler Johnson, who completed the first playoff hat trick in Tampa Bay franchise history.