Another one for the road from Lightning
Tampa Bay gets even in Eastern Conference finals, where home teams are 0-4.
TAMPA BAY 4 WASHINGTON 2
Jon Cooper’s Tampa Bay Lightning won Game 4 of the Eastern Conference final despite going the equivalent of more than a period without a shot on goal.
They won despite falling behind about 41⁄2 minutes into the game.
They won despite being called for three penalties — one right after the other — late in the first period, allowing Alex Ovechkin and the rest of the Washington Capitals’ prolific power play to get all that time to operate.
And they did it, mainly, thanks to Andrei Vasilevskiy, who made 36 saves and kept things close until Alex Killorn scored the tiebreaker with about eight minutes left, lifting Tampa
Bay to a 4-2 victory over Washington on Thursday night, evening the series at two games apiece.
“When you don’t have your A game, you need your goalie to have his A game,” Cooper said. “And he sure did.”
The Lightning will host Game 5 on Saturday night, with Game 6 back in Washington on Monday.
The road team has won every game in the series so far.
“It’s pretty bizarre,” said Steven Stamkos, who took a puck off the face during the morning skate, then went out and scored a power-play goal that gave Tampa Bay a 2-1 lead after the first period. “We’ve got to find a way to win one at home.”
The Capitals might be thinking the very same thing. After all, they fell to 3-5 in the nation’s capital this postseason, while they are 7-1 in away games.
On Thursday, they even got booed — yes, a smattering of jeers rang out in the team’s first conference final in 20 years — late in the first period after failing to convert any of the trio of manadvantage chances.
That stretch was part of a chunk of nearly 21 full minutes of game time — the last 10:41 of the first period, followed by the initial 10:11 of the second — during which Tampa Bay never put a single official shot on net.
“Our guys were gassed. That’s a lot of stress. Mental stress. The same guys are on the ice the whole time. Other guys aren’t playing,” Cooper said. “You kind of lose your whole rhythm.”
So it was vital that Vasilevskiy play just like the Vezina Trophy finalist he is. After allowing 10 goals in Games 1 and 2, he has given up four in Games 3 and 4.