Zemgus Girgensons scored, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 19 saves for the Lightning (4-2-0), who had their four-game winning streak end.
The Lightning’s two losses this season have both come against the Rangers at the Garden by a combined 9-2, including 5-1 on Oct. 1, their season-opener.
“Listen, our team has played extremely well for the most part since the last time we were here,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “I don’t know what it is, but it was dreadful tonight. The execution, I couldn’t believe it. Like I said, I can’t be too hard on them because I’ve watched them play really well for the last four games, and some legit teams we beat, but tonight was just an easy one for them. I guess sometimes that happens, but a little frustrating that we’ve come in here twice (in 13 days) and we’ve been outscored 9-2.”
Lafreniere scored 62 seconds into the game to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead.
Kartye had a strong forecheck to win the puck from Victor Hedman. He tried to get it to the front of the net, but the puck got shoved back behind the goal. Kartye chased it down and sent another pass to the front, this one getting through J.T. Miller and right to Lafreniere in the slot.
“I knew they were both there so I kind of just tried to get it there,” Kartye said. “Luckily, it went through J.T. and right to ‘Laf,’ but good job being both on the inside.”