Rangers top Lightning, 3-2, but lose captain Ryan McDonagh for rest of regular season

Rangers captain and top defenseman Ryan McDonagh is sidelined indefinitely with a right hand injury and will miss at least the rest of the regular season, if not some playoff games, the team said.

Then defenseman Dan Girardi left Tuesday night's 3-2 comeback victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning 18:52 into the third period badly shaken up by ex-teammate Brian Boyle's awkward boarding that prompted a "Boyle sucks" chant from the Garden crowd.

Coach Alain Vigneault said his medical staff assured him Girardi was "all right," but Girardi was down on the ice for such a long time before he was helped off that the Blueshirts can take nothing for granted.

"It's not good," Henrik Lundqvist (39 saves) said after bailing out the Rangers from a miserable start. "It's definitely not this time of year. I really hope (Girardi's injury) is not too serious. He's a guy who plays hard and doesn't go down unless it's really painful. I'm gonna hope for the best here."

RANGERS GET ONE LAST SHOT AT ISLANDERS BEFORE PLAYOFFS^[1]

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Blue Jackets' Sonny Milano and Ryan McDonagh battle for a loose puck during the first period of Monday's game.

TAX BREAK SAVES JAMES DOLAN $48.5M THIS FISCAL YEAR ^[2]

The Rangers (45-26-9, 99 points) at least made the best of a disgusting start and early 2-0 deficit to topple the injury-plagued Lightning (95 points), which played without injured starters Steven Stamkos, Anton Stralman, Victor Hedman and Ryan Callahan, and with backup Andrei Vasilevskiy (25 saves) in net.

Derek Stepan (two goals, three points), Chris Kreider (game-winning goal) and Mats Zuccarello (two assists) led the way offensively just as they had in Monday night's 4-2 victory over the Jackets ^[3] that clinched a playoff berth. McDonagh was hurt in Monday's first period blocking ex-teammate Brandon Dubinsky's slap shot.

NHL SENDS EXPERT TO FIX 'AWFUL' ICE AT BARCLAYS CENTER^[4]

In the captain's absence Tuesday, defensemen Marc Staal (23:13 of ice time, primary assist to Kreider) and Kevin Klein (team-high 27:24) were rocks. Dylan McIlrath and Brady Skjei both dressed with McDonagh out and Dan Boyle scratched.

Tampa clinched a berth due to Boston's overtime loss to Carolina. The Rangers (99 points, two to play) maintained a two-point lead for third place in the Metropolitan Division over the wild-card Islanders (97 points, three to play), who clinched their own berth with a 4-3 OT victory in Washington ^[5] and arrive at the Garden for a final showdown Thursday night.

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Derek Stepan scores two goals in the Rangers' 3-2 comeback victory over the Lightning.

The red-hot Pittsburgh Penguins (102 points) came back and beat Ottawa, 5-3, to maintain a three-point lead for second place and home ice in a potential first-round series against the Rangers, backed by ex-Ranger Carl Hagelin's game-tying and go-ahead goals (these ex-Rangers are killing the boys in Blue).

Vigneault scratched Kevin Hayes for Oscar Lindberg, but strangely played the Swede just a total of nine shifts and 6:03, rationalizing he wanted his top forwards playing to come back and chase the Penguins for home ice.

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Henrik Lundqvist stops 39 shots, allowing the Rangers to rally from a 2-0 deficit.

That's the same reason Lundqvist started both games of a back-to-back for just the fourth time in 17 opportunities. He and the penalty kill (5-for-6) solidified after a team-wide no-show in the first, in which the Lightning outshot the Rangers, 21-6 — a season-worst of shots allowed in a period.

That included a five-minute kill after Tanner Glass' ejection for interference on Vlad Namestnikov, which looked like a headshot live but was actually a late shoulder check from behind. Staal said "we were still on the plane from the night before." But Lundqvist said they "had a good talk after the first" to settle down.

"I wasn't sure what to expect when I came in here," Lundqvist said. "But for the most part when we are in here we know what we have to do and correct. And we know each other really well, so there's no yelling, there's no pointing fingers. We all know we can do better and that was our focus."