After five years, the Tampa Bay Lightning are making their return to the Stanley Cup Finals. Following a heartbreaking loss back in 2015 to the Chicago Blackhawks, the Bolts had some challenges in the playoffs. Last year, after a record breaking season, they were shut out in the first round by Columbus.
This year has been a complete turn around for the Lightning and they got their sweet revenge against the Blue Jackets. They continued to dominate in the series against the Boston Bruins and faced their first real challenge against a gritty team in the New York Islanders. Let’s dive in to this series, specifically the game that sealed the deal for Tampa Bay.
Going into game six of the Eastern Conference Finals, Tampa Bay was coming off of a heartbreaking double-overtime loss to the New York Islanders. Game five, the Lightning completely dominated the offensive zone for nearly the entire game. Kevin Shattenkirk fanned on a slap-shot at the blue line and Anders Lee would take the puck down the ice, assisting Jordan Eberle on the game-winning goal. This was a huge and emotional win for the Islanders and could have easily been a turning point in the series. However, the Bolts would prevail.
The Islanders would come out of the gates quickly in the first period, scoring the first goal on a mistake from Andrei Vasilevskiy and a missed call on a “too-many men” penalty. This goal was scored by Devon Toews on a wrap-around shot from behind the net. Vasilevskiy got caught cheating and this would be his only mistake of the game as he went on to save the next 26 shots.
The Bolts would not let this goal break their spirits. Just two minutes later, Victor Hedman would put a rebound past Semyon Varlamov after a point shot from Erik Cernak kicked out in front of the net.
This was Hedman’s ninth goal of the playoffs and he has been a huge contributor to the Bolts offence. From there on until the overtime period, the Bolts would keep firing shots toward Varlamov, but he would be an absolute unit in net. He stopped 41 shots in regulation, setting his own personal record.
Game six went scoreless for the next two periods, but the Bolts were looking like an offensive force for the first two periods and even on into the third period. However, the Islanders would start pushing late and create some scoring opportunities while recording the most shots in the final period. The shots at the end of regulation were 42-22 in favour of the Lightning. The Bolts would take a double-minor penalty into overtime, just as they did in game five.
The first line for the Bolts found some great scoring chances on this power play opportunity as they seem to get resurrected every time Brayden Point makes his way back into the lineup. He was a game-time decision before game six and had many Lightning fans fearing he wouldn’t play in this game. The four-minute power play would expire with some good chances, but the Lightning definitely have struggled on the man-advantage when the first line is off the ice. The game would continue on.
Late into the extra frame, the Lightning would take another man advantage as Devon Toews took his second delay-of-game penalty. However, the Isles would find the best chance to score with a short-handed attempt from Brock Nelson. Vasilevskiy would make one of the biggest stops of his career, this keeping Tampa Bay’s playoff hopes alive.
At 13:18, Anthony Cirelli would receive a pass from Barclay Goodrow from behind the net and bury a greasy goal behind Varlamov. The puck would bounce off the right post, squeak behind Varlamov and cross the line on the left side of the net. This goal was a funny goal to win on, because just like the Lightning players on the ice, I also didn’t know whether to celebrate or not. It was not a clear goal across the line, but once the ref signalled a good goal, a huge sigh of relief came from Tampa Bay’s bench and every Lightning fan around the world.
The Tampa Bay Lightning are your Eastern Conference Champions, and they will face-off against the Dallas Stars, who absolutely stunned the league’s Western Conference. This will be a challenging series for the Lightning as they will enter game one of the series with only two days of rest under their belts. Dallas, on the other hand, has had many days off.
They completed their series Monday night against the favoured Vegas Golden Knights in similar “overtime-winning” fashion. Game one of the Stanley Cup Finals will be played Saturday night with puck drop falling at 7:30pmET. This game is available for viewing on NBC, CBC and Sportsnet, meanwhile, it can be heard on 96.7-FM and 970 WFLA. The game will also be carried on TVA Sports to be watched in French.
The Tampa Bay Lightning and Dallas Stars will be chasing their second Stanley Cup in franchise history. This will be a great series between two southern-based hockey clubs and I am certain that most of Canada will not be watching, lol. Let’s Go Bolts! Stanley NEEDS a Tan!