TAMPA, Fla. — So you thought this would be easy?

You really thought, midway through Game 3, that the Rangers would cruise into the Stanley Cup Final? You were really thinking about hotels in Denver during the second intermission? (OK, fine, that was me.)

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If the Rangers go on to lose this series, what occurred in the latter 30 minutes of Game 3 will be looked at as the pivot point — when they could have buried the Lightning and instead let them scratch their way back. But don’t forget what this team did to the Hurricanes just last round or what it did to the Penguins before that.

At every turn, Rangers coach Gerard Gallant has been proven right in saying momentum doesn’t carry over from one game to the next. And on paper at least — which is to say, not accounting for injuries to Ryan Strome and Filip Chytil — a series tied at two going back to Madison Square Garden is not a bad position to be in.