TAMPA, Fla. — The Rangers played hockey in this bizarre alternate universe Friday night, a place where Rick Nash scored two goals, Martin St. Louis added another and the most dangerous line of the Eastern Conference finals, of the entire N.H.L. playoffs, played a full 60 minutes without registering a single point.
Chants of “Let’s Go Rangers” rang out loud and true and cathartic at Amalie Arena, where the visitors avoided a reprisal of what would have been a grotesquely familiar feeling: splitting the first two games at home, then losing the next two on the road.