By: Mike Rifkin
The Tampa Bay Lightning’s quest for a third consecutive Stanley Cup will continue after sweeping the President Trophy winning and in state rival Florida Panthers on Monday. Trophy winning and in state rival Florida Panthers in the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
In Game One the story was special teams as the Lightning went 3-6 on the power play and the Panthers were 0-3. The other major story in game one and was a story throughout was the play of Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy who made 33 saves in a 4-1 Lightning win.
In Game Two Vasilevskiy made 35 saves and with less than four seconds left in regulation Ross Colton scored the game winning goal for Tampa to win 2-1.
In Game Three the stars came to play for Tampa Bay. Vasilevskiy was sensational with 34 saves, Nikita Kucherov had a goal and three assists, and Captain Steven Stamkos had two goals in a 5-1 Lightning win.
In Game Four Vasilevskiy made 49 saves and Pat Maroon who is searching for his fourth consecutive Stanley Cup scored the game winning goal in a 2-0 win. Vasilevskiy in his last seven clinching games Vasilevskiy has a .995 save percentage and 0.14 Goals Against Average with SIX shutouts. In Vasilevskiy’s last five games he has given up one goal or less and made at least 30 saves.
We can talk about how great the other Lightning stars in Kucherov, Victor Hedman and Steven Stamkos and they are tremendous but this team has everyone step up. In game seven against the Leafs Nick Paul had two goals. Ross Colton, who scored the Cup clinching goal last season against the Canadiens scored a big goal in this series to give the Lightning a win. Corey Perry who the last two seasons has lost to the Lightning in the Stanley Cup Finals has five goals in the playoffs including three against the Panthers.
The one thing more people need to talk about is the Lightning swept the Panthers without Brayden Point who got hurt in game seven vs the Leafs and didn’t play in this series. We don’t know his status going forward but the time off could help him recover in time for the Conference Finals where the Lightning will play either the Hurricanes or Rangers to see if they will play for a third consecutive Stanley Cup.
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