The Tampa Bay Lightning became the first team to advance to the second round of the 2016 Stanley Cup playoffs on Thursday, eliminating the Detroit Red Wings with a 2-0 win in Game 5.
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Tampa Bay made a point of working on its power play after going 1 for 14 over the first three games of this series, including 0 for 3 in Sunday’s 2-0 loss at Joe Louis Arena. Tampa Bay general manager Steve Yzerman gave his No. 3 overall pick in 2013 a second chance, calling him up to the National Hockey League less than two weeks ago, and he played in the last two games of the regular season.
Their playoff hopes melted away Thursday night, their attempts at extending their first-round series against the Tampa Bay Lightning denied by goaltender Ben Bishop.
Tampa Bay consistently led this series and finished off the Red Wings late in game five.
But the Red Wings had plenty of fight in them yet and they showed great grit to level the scores through Darren Helm and Gustav Nyquist. That was the case as Tampa Bay avoided another trip to Motown by edging Detroit 1-0 despite being outplayed for most of Game 5.
Just got to keep believing in what were doing and getting pucks to the net, a lot of people in front, Zetterberg said.
“We need to put some of those pucks in the net”, said forward Andrew Ladd, who doesn’t have a point in three playoff games this year.
When much-maligned Detroit defenseman Jonathan Ericsson took a cross-checking penalty late in the third period, it was like the ominous cloud hanging over the Red Wings all night due to their special teams’ issues broke out in a storm.
The young kids, Andreas Athanasiou, Dylan Larkin, Petr Mrazek, Xavier Ouellett and Tomas Tatar, they carried the Wings this year.
Bellemare will miss Game 4 on Wednesday as the Flyers try to avoid getting swept by the top-seeded Capitals in the first-round playoff series. Of course, it wasnt the Lightnings best effort in the series as the Lightning were outshot for much of the game and their power play, which did so well in Game 4, was no where to be found.
The Red Wings only scored eight goals in the series, though not because of a lack of opportunities.
NY and Florida are now tied at two games apiece in their first round series.
With this win, the Lightning move one step closer to at least having the conversation down the road with Stralman, to extending their season by another round.
The film work revealed that the Red Wings were susceptible to a play down low while the Lightning were on the power play. Cooper said he decided not to give his players Monday off so they could work on that aspect.
That victory means Tampa Bay fans get to enjoy more hockey action as post-season play continues.
The Lightning struck first by scoring at 5:41 of the first on a power play and scored again midway through the second period with an extra skater, a rare sight earlier in the series. “But it’s playoffs. We don’t like each other”.
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I asked Wings head coach Jeff Blashill that exact question. Lundqvist made 28 saves, giving up a power-play goal to Crosby and a one-on-one chance to Cullen.
