NHL Three Stars: Bishop and Coburn push Lightning into round two

No. 1. Star: Ben Bishop, Tampa Bay Lightning

The 28-year-old netminder was a perfect 31-for-31 against Detroit in sending the Lightning onto the second round. The shots on goal – Tampa only mustered 16 – don’t totally tell the tale of how dominant Detroit was. Naturalstattrick shows the puck possession, and how badly the Lightning needed Bishop to win. He also had an assist on the empty netter!

No. 2. Star: Braydon Coburn, Tampa Bay Lightning

The defenseman scored the game-winner at the 3:58 mark of the third period. Tampa traded for Coburn around the trading deadline from Philadelphia to help with defensive depth. One of those moves that looks genius when it works out – looking at you general manager Steve Yzerman 

No. 3 Star: Petr Mrazek, Detroit Red Wings

The Red Wings rookie netminder was unflappable, except for Coburn’s goal. He was thrust into a tough situation, being named starter over Jimmy Howard, and excelled in his first Game 7. He followed the tradition in being good in games after he was not so good. 

Honorable Mention: Tampa forwards Ryan Callahan and Alex Killorn had the assists on Coburn’s goal … Tampa defenseman Anton Stralman scored the empty netter for Tampa. Detroit forward Pavel Datsyuk didn’t score but fired three shots on goal and won 56 percent of his face offs in 20:17 of action.

Did You Know?: With Tampa’s win over Detroit, home teams are now 93-65 in Game 7s in the Stanley Cup playoffs, and 2-0 in 2015. 

Dishonorable Mention: Tampa forward Steven Stamkos did not register a point and finished the series with three assists in seven games. He probably would have been the goat if his team lost … Instead that honor goes to Detroit captain Henrik Zetterberg who also had just three assists and was a minus-4 in seven games.  

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