Double defending champion, Tampa Bay will play its sixth Eastern Conference final in eight years. The Lightning eliminated Florida 4-0.
In front of their home crowd, Tampa Bay won Act I 2-0 once morest the best team of the regular season. Author of 49 saves, Andrei Vasilevskiy was the big man of the evening. Nicknamed ‘Big Cat’, the Russian picked up his 57th victory in the play-off, the sixth in a row. It will be recalled that Tampa Bay had been led 3-2 by Toronto in the previous round.
The Lightning opened the scoring in the 57th thanks to Pat Maroon before signing the 2-0 in the empty cage by Ondrej Palat 23” from the siren. In the Eastern Conference final, Tampa Bay will find the winner of the series between Nino Niederreiter’s Carolina and the New York Rangers.
In the West, Colorado now leads 3-1 ahead of St. Louis. The Avalanche won 6-3 in Missouri for an undoubtedly capital success in this series thanks to the verve of Nazem Kadri, the man of the match with a hat-trick and an assist.
/ATS
