*Photo from Sporting News*
Tampa Bay wins series 4-2
We might just have a 3 peat in hockey after all. Steven Stamkos scored two goals, Ondrej Palat had a two assist game, and the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the New York Rangers with a 2-1 victory on Saturday night in Tampa Bay.
The Lightning have reverse swept the Rangers with this win. After trailing 2-0 in the series, the Lightning have rattled off 4 straight wins, winning the series 4-2 and clinching a spot in the Stanley Cup Finals for the 3rd straight year, having won the whole thing in their last two trips.
Tampa Bay also continued their recent playoff dominance, dating back to the playoff bubbles in 2020. They've now won 11 straight playoff series, which is the 3rd longest run of playoff series wins in NHL history. They trail only the Montreal Canadiens from 1976-1980 with 13 straight series wins, and the New York Islanders from 1980-1984 with 19 straight.
Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said that "When you are in, it's just sitting up here right now and thinking of the magnitude of going to a third Stanley Cup Final. You grew up as a kid, and I was not near good enough to play in this league. But growing up in Canada, you always dreamed about having your name on the Stanley Cup."
The first period started a lot like the entire series. Tight checking, close play, some shots garnered. but nothing breaking through the great goalies. In the second period, Steven Stamkos got the Lightning on the board, making it 1-0 at the 10:43 mark of the second, assisted by Palat and Mikhail Sergachev.
In the 3rd period, the Rangers finally found paydirt, with Frank Vatrano scoring a power play goal 13:07 into the 3rd, tying it 1-1 on his 5th goal of the playoffs, assisted by Andrew Copp. Just 21 seconds after Vatrano tied it, Stamkos put the Lightning ahead 2-1, scoring his 9th goal of the playoffs and second of the night, assisted by Palat and Nikita Kucherov.
Stamkos said after the game of the win that "I 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 tonight. And that was the feeling that we had from puck drop throughout the game. Just keep going, our will is going to take over."
Picking up his 4th straight win in between the pipes for the Lightning was Andrei Vasilevskiy. He had another dominant game, saving 20 of the 21 shots he was faced with, which was good for a .952 save percentage in the conference clinching win.
For the Rangers, Igor Shesterkin was in net for the loss, taking his 4th straight of the series. Shesterkin stopped 29 out of the 31 shots on goal he faced from the Lightning, recording a .935 save percentage in the season ending defeat.
After the game, Rangers head coach Gerard Gallant offered his thoughts, saying that "I thought Igor was outstanding. He gave us a chance to win every night. We got out-chanced in a lot of the games, but he was outstanding. He was our best player all year long and again in this series."
Up next, the Lightning move on to the Stanley Cup Final, where they will face the Colorado Avalanche. Game one is on Wednesday night in Denver. The Rangers head home for the summer, and will try to figure out how they can make a run at it next year.
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