The Tampa Bay Lightning have eliminated the Detroit Red Wings in game five of round one of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
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Kucherov’s first power-play goal 5:41 into the game gave Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead.
As Mrazek didn’t get all of his attempted pass, Callahan got the puck to the front of the net, where Killorn, part of the Lightning’s three-headed monster that’s devoured Detroit matchups all series long, connected for a redirect goal in a net-front battle against Red Wings defender Jonathan Ericsson.
Bishop said that with his team scoring three or more goals in the first three wins, it was his turn to step up. Nikita Kucherov has an NHL-high five goals in the playoffs, while Tyler Johnson continued to torment the Red Wings with seven points.
David Backes tied it on a deflection that slipped past Corey Crawford with 5:10 to play. “Cally made a really good read, and once I saw him get the puck, I’m going to the net”.
NOTES: NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman attended the game after getting a tour of District Detroit, which includes an arena the Red Wings plan to play in during the 2017-18 season. “We felt bad for him”. The Red Wings only scored once in the third period, and that was a power-play goal by Richards in Game 2, which Tampa Bay won 5-2.
Said coach Jon Cooper: “If you give our team a C (for its Game 5 performance) and you give Detroit an A, the problem is Bishop got an A-plus, and an A-plus trumped the A. And that’s why we got lucky on that one”.
“Their best players outplayed our best players”, Zetterberg said.
The trio was flummoxed in Game 5, with Larkin turned away by Bishop on a breakaway in the second period and Tatar visibly showing his frustration after Carle deflected his shot into the protective netting, half-swinging his stick at the boards early in the third.
The best things come to those who wait, and in Alex Killorn’s case, he took it down to the wire for his Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday. They haven’t made it past the second round since 2009, when they came within a win of repeating as Stanley Cup champions. As much as the fans were frustrated, imagine what was going through the minds of the players on the ice. RW Tomas Jurco and LW Teemu Pulkkinen were healthy scratches, as they have been in each game this series….
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Of course if you want something even more depressing, because maybe you’re just in the mood to torture yourself, check out the Wings power play in their series with the Lightning. While one was an elimination game for both teams, the Lightning still needed Bishop to show up big and help his team get the W and advance. They now lead the series 3-1, Detroit’s playoff chances dwindling despite their clean sheet from Game 3. Of Bishop’s four playoff shutouts, three have clinched a series. “I thought we played well enough to win but obviously we didn’t”. Earlier Thursday, the Red Wings assigned D Xavier Ouellet to the Grand Rapids Griffins of the AHL, which begins a first-round playoff series against the Milwaukee Admirals on Friday night.
