I think it’s every kid’s dream to be in this situation. Our goal is to be playing for the Stanley Cup. “The emotions are so high,” Cirelli said. They can thank defenseman Hedman for scoring his ninth goal of the playoffs, Nikita Kucherov for playing 28:22 and Andrei Vasilveskiy making 26 saves while his teammates peppered Islanders goaltender Semyon Varlamov with 48 shots.Īnd Cirelli, who came back from an injury scare to score the Lightning’s biggest goal in years. Now the Lightning are four wins from that mountaintop despite being without Stamkos all postseason and missing top center Brayden Point for two games against the Islanders. “We could see the mountain top, but we couldn’t get to the mountain top.” “We got close,” Islanders coach Barry Trotz said. Only New York lasted more than five games, pushing the Lightning to their limits before their talented core got them into the final. Louis in 2019, deadpanned, “My finger nails are gone.” ![]() Winger Patrick Maroon, the only player in the final in back-to-back years after winning with St. Tampa Bay ended each of their three series victories in overtime. ![]() That came minutes after they streamed on to the ice to celebrate Cirelli’s goal 13:18 into overtime. Players and coaches screamed with joy after taking a team photo with Daly. Definitely a special moment for that group and then to get the whole team involved: great moment.” “He’s been a huge part of this run even without playing. “We wanted all the team captains up there and wanted Steven a part of it,” McDonagh said. It mattered to the team’s leaders to have Stamkos there even though he hasn’t played since February. Stamkos, Hedman, Alex Killorn and Ryan McDonagh were the first players to shake deputy commissioner Bill Daly’s hand inside the NHL bubble that has had zero positive coronavirus test results. □ /9ORlHj2MRD- Tampa Bay Lightning September 18, 2020 Burn tonight’s tape and get them tomorrow.YOUR OT HERO, ANTHONY CIRELLI. I think we all would have taken two points from this back-to-back. start, and the Islanders will need to be ready for this game, a potential preview of their first-round series-if they get there. The ‘Canes shut out the Montreal Canadiens tonight in Quebec, so they’ll also be on a back-to-back and will have to travel further than the Isles. Tomorrow’s game against the Carolina Hurricanes just became a bit more important. The Isles are three points ahead of Pittsburgh, who has a game in hand. The Islanders remain at 87 points, two ahead of the Florida Panthers (even in games played), who jumped the Pittsburgh Penguins for the final playoff spot with their whipping of the Columbus Blue Jackets, combined with the Pens giving up David Pastrnak’s hat trick goal with 2:26 to play to lose in regulation. The Lightning clinched a playoff spot and a first-round rematch against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Of note to Lightning fans, Sergachev collided with J-G Pageau and appeared to suffer a leg injury he left and did not return.ĥ-0 was the final. Semyon Varlamov was pretty good besides that goal. The third period was largely academic, although lawyer-coach Jon Cooper rolled out his top power play unit late in the third period so Point could get one goal closer to 50. We had to hold our breath when diarrhea stain Corey Perry head-locked Romanov to the ice, forcing him to leave the game, but Romanov fortunately returned for the final frame. And then Ilya Sorokin’s night ended-not because he was bad but because his team needed a jolt-when a centering pass ticked off the skate of Steven Stamkos, because of course they needed the break there. (Should have seen that one coming, too.) Nikita Kucherov never went into his own zone on an Islander dump-in and got lost behind Noah Dobson and Adam Pelech when Brayden Point sent him on a breakaway. ![]() Tanner Jeannot scored in the first couple of minutes, his first since the Lightning paid nearly an entire draft to acquire him. However, in the second period, the game came unraveled. They fell behind 1-0 late in the first period because Mikhail Sergachev’s bounced off Alexander Romanov, but otherwise played the Bolts evenly in the opening frame. The Islanders didn’t play too terribly to start. So of course Andrei Vasilevskiy was going to pitch a shutout. ![]() And they entered the night with a chance to clinch something: a playoff berth. The Tampa Bay Lightning, while mediocre on the road, have been an unreal team at home this season. They have been unable to win in Tampa for the last four years, save for Game 1 in 2021. It had been a while since the New York Islanders got blown out. In retrospect, we probably should have seen this one coming.
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