TAMPA, FL – Tampa Bay Lightning eliminated the New York Rangers in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals 2-1 on Saturday night to qualify for their third consecutive Stanley Cup final.
Stephen Stamkos scored both goals to beat Lightning over Rangers, who saw their surprising and dramatic playoffs end to the conference finals.
The Lightning is trying to become the first team to win three times since the New York Islanders in 1983. The Stanley Cup final between Lightning and Colorado Avelanche will begin Wednesday in Denver. Avalanche are aiming for their first Stanley Cup since 2001.
The Eastern Conference finals were declared a battle between Lightning goalkeeper Andrei Vassilevsky and Rangers goalkeeper Igor Shesterkin, and Match 6 was a fitting highlight. Shesterkin made 28 saves, several of which were spectacular to keep Rangers in the game.
Meanwhile, Vassilevski (20 saves) continued his mastery of potential clinching games. He now has 13 wins in 24 potential clinches in the playoffs and has conceded just one goal or less in 11 of those matches.
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The first period was fruitless thanks to Shesterkin. He made accurate saves for Pat Maroon and Anthony Cirelli and a fantastic skate save in the diversion of Pierre-Edouard Bellemare. He worked more magic in the second period with a great save at the chance of Nikita Kucherov.
Shesterkin made 16 saves before Lightning captain Stephen Stamkos made a long shot from the right wing board past the goalkeeper. It was the 40th playoff goal of the Lightning captain’s career and the eighth since the season.
Lightning ended the second period 1-0 with an advantage of 23-13 shots.
Rangers finally won the power play at 2:26 in the third period. They entered the game with the best playoff rate (31.5%), but had only 3:15 power play time in the previous two games. Lightning killed this man’s advantage – but not New York’s second.
With Stamkos in the penalty area for hooking, Frank Vatrano made a shot past Vasilevski for his fifth of the playoffs at 13:07 of the third period.
But Stamkos would answer with his ninth of the playoffs just 21 seconds later.
Kucherov found Stamkos, who headed to the Rangers’ net with a pass. He shot the puck into Shesterkin’s glove, but the puck bounced in the air and bounced off Stamkos’s leg into the net for a 2-1 lead. The goal was confirmed in a video review from the NHL Situation Room.
Rangers failed to equalize. Their attack resulted in only one goal for the third consecutive match.
Rangers coach Gerard Galant hinted before game 6 that he could make changes to the squad and they were plentiful. He crossed out striker Kaapo Kakko, number 2 as the overall pick for 2019, for the first time in the post-season and replaced him with striker Dryden Hunt. He also defeated the duo of Chris Crider and Mike Zibanedjad, who had secured the Rangers’ most productive line in the playoffs.
Lightning lost defender Victor Hedman by 10:45 in the second period after being hit in the head by Rangers striker Alexis Lafrenier. But Hedman returned to start the third period.
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