TAMPA, Fla. -- Clinging to a 2-1 lead early in the third period Tuesday night, the New York Rangers took the burden off goalie Henrik Lundqvist, exploding for five goals to pull away to an easy 7-3 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning.

That evens the Eastern Conference finals at three wins apiece and sends the series back to Madison Square Garden on Friday night. The Rangers are 7-0 all-time at home in Game 7s.

"It was not taking our foot off the gas," said winger Rick Nash, who had a goal and three assists. "This is a really skilled offensive team that if you sit back, they're going to take it to you, especially those top two lines. They've got some great skill. Getting that third goal was huge."

Leading the scoring for New York was center Derick Brassard, who scored on the Rangers' first shot in the first, then added two in the third, including an empty-net goal in the final two minutes. It was New York's first playoff hat trick since 2007, when Michael Nylander did so against the Thrashers.

Lundqvist, at home with his back against the wall, is now 15-3 in elimination games over the last four seasons. Lundqvist made 36 saves in the game.

Clinging to a 2-1 lead, New York extended its lead to 3-1 on a goal by center J.T. Miller with 16:58 left in the game.

"We capitalized on our chances pretty well," said Miller, who also helped screen Lightning goalie Ben Bishop on a long goal by defenseman Keith Yandle in the first period. "Any time you get that many past such a good goalie, that's a good start. I thought we played a pretty straight-up good hockey game."

Lightning center Steven Stamkos had a turnover to set up a 3-on-1 for New York, and Bishop stopped the first two shots, but Brassard found Miller in front of the net for the goal and a commanding 3-1 lead.

Less than three minutes later, the Rangers scored on a rebound, as center James Sheppard got his first goal of the playoffs for a 4-1 lead with 14 minutes left. Brassard added another goal, his eighth of the playoffs, with 12:56 to play, sending Bishop to the bench for the rest of the game having stopped just 21 of 26 shots faced.

"For five straight periods, we played really, really well. We played defense, we created chances, we didn't turn pucks over," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "In a matter of seven or eight minutes in that third period, we gave up more scoring chances and turned over more pucks than we did in all of Game 5, combined, the 60-minute game."

The line of Brassard, Miller and Nash combined for five goals in a dominating night. The Rangers are now 43-0-1 this season when leading after two periods, including a 7-0 mark in the playoffs.

Tampa Bay got a late goal from right winger Nikita Kucherov, then Nash added the sixth goal against backup goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy. Kucherov added a second goal with 6:39 to play and Brassard finished the scoring with an empty-netter.

The Rangers scored on their first shot of the game, with Brassard pushing a shot through the legs of Bishop with 16:24 left in the opening period.

New York doubled its advantage on a long shot from defenseman Keith Yandle, who beat Bishop over his left shoulder with 4:30 left in the opening period. It was Yandle's second goal of the playoffs.

The Lightning pulled one back with 2:40 left in the first period with a power-play goal by former Rangers captain Ryan Callahan, who broke in on Lundqvist and beat him to his left for his first goal of the playoffs.

"It's just more lessons learned," Cooper said of the loss. "Sometimes you have to go to the School of Hard Knocks to find out what works and what doesn't. We've got a young group that has played some unreal hockey to get us this far. We showed if we don't play the proper way, a really, really good hockey team is going to beat us."

NOTES: For only the second time in 19 playoff games,