TAMPA, Fla. , 12 Jun (AP) \u2014 The Tampa Bay Lightning\u2019s bid for a three-peat is alive and well.
\nWith captain Steven Stamkos leading the way, the two-time defending champions beat the New York Rangers 2-1 in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference final Saturday night, securing a berth in the Stanley Cup Final for the third straight year.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s going to be tough to get out of the moment and look back and realize what a special group we have here because there\u2019s still some games to be played,\u201d Stamkos said. \u201cYou\u2019re still not at the end of our goal, but in saying that this group is pretty amazing and pretty special.\u201d
\nStamkos scored two goals and Andrei Vasilevskiy had 20 saves for the Lightning, who won the series 4-2 \u2014 winning four straight games after losing the first two on the road \u2014 and will face the Colorado Avalanche in the Cup final.
\nGame 1 is Wednesday night in Denver.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s probably not the greatest word to use, but I\u2019m damn impressed by this group,\u201d coach Jon Cooper said.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s impressive what they\u2019ve done. … I\u2019m just utterly impressed by what they do to win a hockey game,\u201d he added. \u201cAnd the fact that they they have every excuse in the world to not win because nobody would fault them by saying hey, you won one, you won two and to come back and and go for a third. I\u2019m impressed.\u201d
\nStamkos put the Lightning ahead for good in the third period just 21 seconds after New York\u2019s Frank Vatrano scored on the power play with the Tampa Bay captain in the penalty box for holding.
\nNikita Kucherov and Ondrej Palat assisted on the winner with 6 1\/2 minutes left, with the puck deflecting off Stamkos\u2019 knee into the net after Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin stopped the initial shot.
\nStamkos also scored on a wrist shot from the top of the right circle midway through the second period.
\n\u201cI obviously was a little disappointed in myself for taking the penalty. … It\u2019s easy to say now, but for some reason I wasn\u2019t as rattled as I usually am in those situations,\u201d Stamkos said. \u201cI was just confident in our group that we would find a way, whether it was in regulation or was in overtime. We deserved to win the game. That was the feeling we had from puck drop.\u201d
\nThe Lightning are the first team to make three consecutive appearances in the Cup final since Edmonton did it from 1983-85. They are trying to become the first to win three straight championships since the New York Islanders claimed four in a row from 1980-83.
\nThe Rangers, down 3-2 in a series for the third straight round, were 5-0 in elimination games this postseason before Saturday night.
\nThe only teams to win more elimination games in a single postseason were the 1975 New York Islanders (eight), 2014 Los Angeles Kings (seven) and 2003 Minnesota Wild (six).
\n\u201cIt\u2019s hard right now. But we played well, we battled hard, we had a chance to win all those games,\u201d Rangers coach Gerard Gallant said. \u201cThey found a way to get the big goal at the big time.\u201d
\nNew York dropped three of the first four games before winning three straight elimination games to beat the Pittsburgh Penguins in the opening round. It lost the first two on the road at Carolina before rebounding to oust the Hurricanes in seven games to reach the East final.
\nIt was a different story Saturday night, with the Lightning limiting New York\u2019s scoring opportunities while outshooting the Rangers 31-21.
\nVasilevskiy went long stretches without being tested. He faced just seven shots in the opening period, six in the second and eight in the third.
\nShesterkin, meanwhile, stopped 29 of 31 shots and made big save after big save to give New York a chance.
\n\u201cI thought Igor was outstanding. He gave us a chance to win every night. We got outchanced in a lot of the games, but he was outstanding. He was our best player all year long and again in this series,\u201d Gallant said.
\n\u201cShesterkin was unbelievable. He made some unbelievable saves to keep them in it, but I think I just felt kind of a calming presence because of the group,\u201d Stamkos said. \u201cIt was just one of those nights where whether it was the next shift after, whether I scored or someone else scored, it was just a feeling that we were going to get it done.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TAMPA, Fla. , 12 Jun (AP) \u2014 The Tampa Bay Lightning\u2019s bid for a three-peat is alive and well. With captain Steven Stamkos leading the way, the two-time defending champions beat the New York Rangers 2-1 in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference final Saturday night, securing a berth in the Stanley Cup Final for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-192915","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192915\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}