A late goal from Ondrej Palat gave the Tampa Bay Lighting its first victory of the series thanks to a 3-2 win.

A late goal from Ondrej Palat gave the Tampa Bay Lighting its first victory of the series thanks to a 3-2 win.

Tampa Bay outshot the Rangers 51-29 in the team's best effort of the third round to cut the series lead to 2-1.

The teams played to a scoreless opening period, with the Lightning outshooting the Rangers 15-12. It took until 7:37 in the second when Mika Zibanejad slammed a power-play one-timer past Andrei Vasilevskiy to open the scoring. That extended Zibanejad's point streak to eight games, with six goals and 12 points in that span.

Just before the halfway point, Chris Kreider's goal made it 2-0 on a blast of his own to put the Lightning in a tough spot. Thankfully for Tampa, Nikita Kucherov answered back just over a minute later to make it 2-1, giving Tampa a bit of life after a rough first half of the second period.

The Lightning needed a big bounce-back goal early in the third to get back into the game, and they got it from Steven Stamkos. Just like Kucherov before him, Stamkos ripped a power-play one-timer in at 41:22 to tie the game on Tampa Bay's 38th shot of the game.

Both teams traded scoring chances, but a goal in the final minute from Ondrej Palat changed the course of the game. Palat scored from in close glove side on Igor Shesterkin, giving Tampa Bay the 3-2 victory

Dylan Strome was forced to leave the game early in the second period after what appeared to be a slight push from Ondrej Palat. Strome limped off the ice and immediately limped to the change room in a strange-looking incident. Strome didn't return to the game and will be evaluated for the rest of the series.

Game 4 is set for Tuesday at 8:00 PM ET in Tampa Bay.