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Christian Dvorak Jersey , Fla. (AP)Lightning understand what it takes to be successful in the Stanley Cup playoffs.”You need your best players to be the best players, and they rose to the occasion,” coach Jon Cooper said Saturday after the top seed in the Eastern Conference beat the New Jersey Devils 3-1, ending their first-round series in five games.”People are going to look at this series and say: `Oh, 4-1. Tampa took it to them.’ Anybody that was actually watching these games knew clearly that’s not what happened in this series,” Cooper added. ”It was fought from the drop of the puck to the end. We just happened to get big goals at the right time.”Nikita Kucherov scored his 27th career postseason goal and Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 26 shots for the Lightning, who advanced to a second-round matchup against either the Boston Bruins or Toronto Maple Leafs.Kucherov, the NHL’s third-leading scorer during the regular season with 100 points, had five goals and five assists in the five games, setting a franchise for points in a playoff series. He also tied Vincent Lecavalier for second-place on the club’s all-time postseason scoring list.”I thought he elevated (his play) throughout the series, no question,” Cooper said of the 24-year-old, two-time All-Star, who has 27 goals and 25 assists in 50 career playoff games.”He’s an extreme competitor,” New Jersey coach John Hynes said. ”When you look at a guy like Kucherov, he has talent but he’s not a perimeter player. He’s very strong on the puck, he competes hard
http://www.officialcoyotes.com/authentic-adidas-clayton-keller-jersey , he’s got good hockey sense. He’s the type of offensive player you need to have success if you’re going to have a chance to win the Stanley Cup.”Mikhail Sergachev became the youngest player in Lightning history to score a playoff goal and Ryan Callahan, back in the lineup after missing the previous two games with an upper-body injury, sealed it with an empty-netter for the Atlantic Division champions with 1.7 seconds remaining.”Feels great, especially at home in front of our fans,” Kucherov said. ”I think we played well defensively, and teams that play well defensively move forward.”Tampa Bay won the first two games at home before splitting a pair of the road, returning to Amalie Arena after Kucherov had two goals and an assist to key a 3-1 victory in Game 4The right winger’s sizzling shot past goalie Cory Schneider put the Lightning up 2-0 at 12:27 of the third period of the clincher.The 19-year-old Sergachev, meanwhile, became the youngest player in franchise history to score a playoff goal, giving the Lightning a 1-0 lead in the first period.Schneider did all he could to give the Devils a chance to extend their first playoff appearance since 2012.The goalie, who lost his starting job after being injured in January, stopped 35 of 37 shots, including Tyler Johnson’s breakaway that kept New Jersey within striking distance after Kyle Palmieri trimmed Tampa Bay’s lead to one goal with three minutes left.Will Butcher and Taylor Hall assisted on the only goal for New Jersey, which played without injured defenseman Sami Vatanen.”I felt good and enjoyed playing, but at the end of the day I didn’t get the job done,” said Schneider, who replaced Keith Kinkaid during Game 1 and started the last four games. ”I didn’t extend the series
Youth Derek Stepan Jersey , and I didn’t get us the win, so a little bit for naught.”New Jersey kept it close, killing off four consecutive penalties in the second period, when the Lightning outshot the Devils 18-4 but couldn’t expand its one-goal lead.Schneider had two more saves early in the third as Tampa Bay sputtered on a fifth power-play opportunity.”We have to stay out of the box better than we did tonight,” Hynes said. ”It sometimes disrupts the flow of the game, but I think if you look at the penalty kill, those guys played their hearts out. I thought Cory was fantastic. . Those guys kept us right in the game, right to the end.”Notes: The Lightning was 0-for-10 on the power play in Games 4 and 5, yet won both games. … Vatanen, New Jersey’s top defenseman, was injured during the opening period of Game 4 when he was checked high by Kucherov. The Devils also played without RW Stefan Noesen, who was scratched with a lower-body injury. … Callahan (upper body) returned after missing Games 3 and 4. ”It’s always tough watching your team play, especially in the playoffs,” he said. ”To be able to get back out there and play was big.”— WASHINGTON (AP) — Andrei Vasilevskiy piled up the saves, and the Tampa Bay Lightning and Washington Capitals traded blows in a thrilling potential playoff preview.Vasilevskiy made a franchise-record 54 saves, Nikita Kucherov scored twice and the NHL-leading Lightning won their sixth consecutive game, beating the defending Stanley Cup champion Capitals 5-4 in overtime Wednesday. The frenetic pace
Womens Jason Demers Jersey , high energy and hatred between the teams that met in last year’s Eastern Conference final made a rematch this spring all the more of a tantalizing possibility.“I’m sure both of us would be very happy to see each other again if it’s the Eastern Conference final,” Tampa Bay captain Steven Stamkos said. “There’s a long way to get to that point. We’ll hopefully see them.”Victor Hedman scored 3:01 into overtime to keep the Lightning rolling in their first game since clinching the Presidents’ Trophy and home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs. Despite nothing to gain in the standings, they managed to pick up two more points against the Metropolitan Division-leading Capitals.Vasilevskiy was on top of his game as Washington set a franchise record with 58 shots and allowed Tampa Bay just 28. He stopped countryman Alex Ovechkin 11 times in one of the finest performances of his career.“Pretty safe to say who our MVP was tonight,” coach Jon Cooper said. “He was exceptional. Shame on us for giving up that many scoring chances, especially to a team that played a back to back, but you wake up in the morning and you see the boxscore and it’s going to say 5-4 Tampa, but obviously Vasy was a big reason for that.”Kucherov’s two goals came on the power play, gave him 37 overall this season and increased his league-leading point total to 119. That’s 14 more than the next-closest player, reigning Art Ross Trophy winner Connor McDavid.Anthony Cirelli and Stamkos each took advantage of a Capitals mistake to score, and Stamkos added two assists for a three-point night. The Lightning’s league-leading power play that hadn’t scored in two games went 3 for 3, and their penalty kill was 5 for 6, thanks in large part to Vasilevskiy.“Another incredible performance,” defenseman Ryan McDonagh said. “Definitely wish we played a little bit better in front of him and caused a lot of our havoc and chances against. He stood tall and gave us a great chance to find a way to win a game.”The Capitals picked up a point to build on their division lead because of Evgeny Kuznetsov’s tying goal with 52.6 seconds left. Lars Eller, Carl Hagelin and T.J. Oshie also scored, and Braden Holtby allowed five goals on 28 shots as the Lightning beat the Capitals for the second time in five days.“They’re a good team, we’re a good team, and it’s been two very close games
Paul Thompson Jersey Womens ,” Holtby said. “That’s what you want going into playoffs. That’s how you can learn the most and grow your team the most.”The teams meet again at Tampa Bay on March 30 and could face off in the Eastern Conference final for the second consecutive year, if each gets through two playoff rounds.“Oftentimes you’ll see teams that have success versus an opponent in the regular season, it doesn’t always carry over,” Capitals coach Todd Reirden said. “It’s going to be a good challenge and there’s a little bit of animosity and rivalry forming with them. They’re fun games for our guys to play.”There’s no shortage of bad blood between them already, and that caused the Capitals to suffer what would be a devastating loss. Defenseman Michal Kempny’s left leg bent awkwardly as he went down to the ice during a tussle with Cedric Paquette, and he needed help from trainers to get down the tunnel to the locker room.Kempny did not return with what the team called a lower-body injury, and Reirden said “it’s safe to say he’s going to miss some time.” In the aftermath of Kempny going down, two unlikely fighters dropped the gloves when Washington’s Jakub Vrana and Tampa Bay’s Yanni Gourde traded punches. It was a boiling point in a fast-paced, intense clash that didn’t seem at all as if the Lightning had nothing to play for.“Today was a good example of the goods and the bads in our game,” Hedman said. “When we do all the goods, we are a tough team to play against.”NOTES: Lightning D Dan Girardi was downgraded to out indefinitely with a lower-body injury. Girardi missed his sixth consecutive game, and D Anton Stralman missed his seventh in a row with a lower-body injury. … Capitals D Brooks Orpik returned to the lineup in place of Christian Djoos after being rested at New Jersey on Tuesday in the first half of the back-to-back set. Djoos could return to the lineup, if Kempny misses any time.UP NEXTLightning: Make second stop on three-game trip Thursday at the Carolina Hurricanes.Capitals: Continue homestand Friday against former coach Bruce Boudreau and the Minnesota Wild.
