Lightning defeat Habs, move on to East finals
The Tampa Bay Lightning are moving on thanks to a big win in Game 6. (USATSI)
Montreal Canadiens vs. Tampa Bay Lightning, Game 6
Lightning 4, Canadiens 1 | Lightning win series 4-2
Game 6 in a nutshell: With the pressure mounting, the Tampa Bay Lightning came out firing on the Montreal Canadiens in Game 6. After Nikita Kucherov opened the scoring with 4:25 to go in the first period, Tampa Bay took control of the game. The Lightning kept the Canadiens under wraps with solid possession, and even when the Habs pushed, the Lightning at least had Ben Bishop as the last line of defense. Now Tampa is headed back to the Eastern Conference finals for the first time since 2011.
Turning point: After Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov scored the game’s first goal on a perfect tip in of an Ondrej Palat shot, the Lightning simply had no response. They had one shot on goal in the immediate aftermath, but then didn’t have an even-strength shot attempt again until after Steven Stamkos made it 2-0 in the second period. The Lightning took control of the game at that point and already had the two-goal cushion to lean on.
Three things we learned
1. The Lightning picked a good time to have their best game of the series. Even though they had a 3-0 series lead at one point and a 6-2 win mixed in there, Game 6 was their best overall performance. The pressure was on after Montreal won the last two. The Bolts were also without top-six forward Ryan Callahan and inserted Jonathan Marchessault who had just two games under his belt this season. The “Triplets” line played extremely well throughout the game, and defenseman Victor Hedman was a man possessed. Ben Bishop didn’t have much to do, but was strong when called upon and Stamkos will be mentioned in a second. If this is the Lightning hitting their stride, they’re going to be a heck of a challenge for either the New York Rangers or Washington Capitals in the next series.
2. Steven Stamkos is back. After looking average to good, Stamkos looked great for much of Game 6. Stamkos had his speed through the neutral zone, he had his spectacular shot on the second goal of the game, he just looked fresher. This isn’t to say that Stamkos looks like the best version of himself, but he looked as close as he had all series in Game 6. When he plays like that, there aren’t many teams that are going to be able to keep him off the score sheet.
3. Stamkos gets all the headlines, but when he wasn’t scoring, Nikita Kucherov was. The 21-year-old forward finished with six goals in the series, including two in Game 6. He had 29 during the regular season and is likely to only get better as he progresses in his career. With his keen scoring ability, the pressure was off of Stamkos and Tyler Johnson who had scored so many early in these playoffs. The reason Tampa Bay is headed to the Eastern Conference finals is because they can get offense from all over their lineup like they have all season. They’ve struggled some in the playoffs, but there is enough skill in this lineup to give opponents a lot of different players to try to key on.
Video of the game: Much had been made about the lack of goal scoring from Steven Stamkos. He pulled out a vintage snipe in Game 6 to put a pin in those goal-scoring worries for at least one night. After Alex Killorn did a nice job with zone entry, he dished the puck to Stamkos used Montreal defenseman Jeff Petry to freeze Carey Price. The goal stood as the game-winner and rewarded Stamkos for a fantastic performance in Game 6.
Pure sniper @RealStamkos91. #MTLvsTBL #StanleyCup https://t.co/Xn4y6AyIue
— NHL (@NHL) May 13, 2015
This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service – if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers.
