Lightning advance to Cup finals
Bishop, Tampa Bay shut out top-seeded Rangers in Game 7.
The Tampa Bay Lightning will play for the Stanley Cup, winning their third straight game at Madison Square Garden 2-0 on Friday night to beat the New York Rangers in the Eastern Conference finals in seven games.
Ben Bishop, pulled from a Game 6 loss after allowing five goals, outplayed Henrik Lundqvist in handing New York its first loss ever in a Game 7 at the Garden. Alex Killorn scored early in the third period and Ondrej Palat iced it.
The Lightning, who won the Cup in 2004 in their only trip to the finals, will play Chicago or Anaheim for the championship. The Blackhawks are at the Ducks tonight in the Western Conference’s decisive game.
New York had the league’s best record this season and was 15-3 in its last 18 elimination games. The most recent defeat was in the fifth game of the Cup finals last year at Los Angeles. But Bishop made sure there would be another loss for the Rangers, extending his shutout string at the Garden to 145 minutes, 43 seconds.
Bishop’s teammates stormed off the bench to mob him after his 22nd save of the night. The crowd chanted “Hen-rik! Hen-rik!” as both teams lined up to shake hands, and Lundqvist looked stunned as well as downhearted as he took part in the tradition.
The Lightning then collected the hardware for winning the East, the Prince of Wales Trophy, and set their sights on the bigger hardware: the Stanley Cup.
The finals will begin Wednesday night.
Western Conference: Coach Bruce Boudreau says his Anaheim Ducks can find all the inspiration they need by knowing that in Game 7 lies an Tampa Bay 2, New York 0 (Lightning win 4-3) Chicago at Anaheim (series tied 3-3) opportunity to play in the Stanley Cup finals.
Reputations also hang in the balance.
Eight of the Ducks who played Wednesday in a 5-2 loss in Game 6 of the Western Conference finals — including stars Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry — were also part of the teams that were eliminated in Game 7 losses at home the past two seasons.
Although beating the Chicago Blackhawks at Honda Center tonight would be sweet redemption, defeat would qualify as a trend, creating a narrative that Anaheim is a great team ... until the pressure-packed playoffs.
“I’m not bringing that up to them at all,” Boudreau said Thursday.