The Lightning, who have been down two of their top players throughout the playoffs, lost Vezina Trophy finalist Ben Bishop in the first period Friday before grabbing a 3-1 win in Game 1.
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Ben Bishop still might play in Game 2 for the Lightning. Bishop was on the ice for a long time in obvious pain, and needed athletic trainers from both teams as well as some of his teammates to help him onto a stretcher that took him off the ice.
Backup Andrei Vasilevskiy came into Game 1 and stopped 25 of 26 shots.
Lightning coach Jon Cooper said he hadn’t ruled out Bishop for Game 2 at Consol Energy Center on Monday.
The Lightning kept pressuring, and they made it 3-0 when Jonathan Drouin finished off a 3-on-1 break by snapping off a shot that sailed under the crossbar nearly before Murray (17 saves) could react at 18:25 of the second. Murray, who is assumed to be Game 2’s starter, must also put together a solid game if the Penguins want to move on to the Stanley Cup Finals. He’s been one of Pittsburgh’s biggest workhorses and has significantly improved his play since the beginning of the season.
Against the Islanders in Game 5, Callahan took a stupid double minor for roughing – one of the minors being for a juvenile face wash – and last night he obliterated Pittsburgh’s Kris Letang with a unsafe hit from behind, for which he was assessed a five-minute major penalty but, to the surprise of many analysts, was not ejected. Ondrej Palat was there to pick up the rebound, and he flipped it into a almost empty net on the backhand for the ever elusive power play goal at 2:33.
“It’s not something we’re proud of”, Cooper said. While the score seemed to give the Penguins a decided lift – they carried the play over much of the final 20 minutes – the Lightning and Vasilevskiy held on to grab the early momentum in a series that looks far more contentious going forward than it appeared going in. “I think our guys did a really good job of giving him time to get into the game”.
The rancor continued late in the first when Pittsburgh’s Chris Kunitz collided with Tampa Bay’s Tyler Johnson along end boards. While Bishop’s initial fears were allayed when tests came back negative, it’s still uncertain when he’ll return or if he’ll be back at all during the playoffs.
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“That’s what I’m here for”, the former first-round draft pick said. “But going out there and playing hockey is different than just walking around”. When it was revealed Steven Stamkos would undergo surgery for a blood clot, pundits around the league all but wrote off the Lightning.
