Lightning Second Line a Major Factor in Win Streak

The Tampa Bay Lightning are on a four game winning streak entering Tuesday's game at Madison Square Garden to face the New York Rangers. Tampa Bay will look to exact revenge on New York, who handed them their only loss to open the regular season.

A big key to the early success for Tampa Bay to start the season has been their second line of Brandon Hagel, Anthony Cirelli, and Jake Guentzel.

Hagel's four goals lead the Lightning and he is tied with Nikita Kucherov for the team lead scoring eight points through five games. The second line is getting a lot of ice time so far, with Hagel leading the team averaging 22:05, while Jake Guentzel is third at 20:52 per game. In fact, Hagel leads all NHL fowards in ice time, and is the only forward inside the top 50 in the category. Hagel has 26 shots-on-goal which is third in the NHL entering Monday's action.

Guentzel has been another key contributor with six points (3G, 3A) and along with Hagel and Cirelli are a combined +12. The second line is creating offensive chances with volume shooting, Tampa Bay ranks seventh in the NHL with 30.2 shots-on-goal per game. Guentzel is tied with John Carlson for second on the Lightning with 15 shots,

Tampa Bay will return to face a Rangers team that will be without top goaltender Igor Shesterkin who suffered a major injury this past Friday.

Shesterkin shut down the Lightning when the teams met to open the season October 1st, stopping 23 out of 24 shots in a 5-1 victory. The Rangers have been red hot to open the season but lost Shesterkin who left in their 3-1 loss to the Washington Capitols. Prior to that matchup New York had won four straight. The Rangers bounced back in their last game, a 6-2 win against Vancouver on home ice.

Tampa Bay will have to compete with a Rangers squad that ranks inside the top ten in both power play efficiency and penalty killing. Things have not been stellar for Tampa Bay on special teams early on as the Lightning sit near the bottom of the NHL.

The Lightning will need to be active in front of the presumptive starting goaltender for the Rangers Dylan Garand, who was waived by New York early in the season before being claimed again. Garand looked solid in his first start against the Canucks, stopping 19 of 21 shots he faced. Tampa Bay is tied for eighth in the NHL with 45 high-danger shots and should look to create havoc in front of the young net minder.