TAMPA, Fla. — The “recipe” still works.
The Lightning dispatched the New York Rangers, a team that might have presented their toughest challenge of the past three postseasons, in the Eastern Conference final. They advance to their third straight Stanley Cup Final with a 2-1 win in Game 6 at Amalie Arena.
The Lightning became the first team to advance to the Stanley Cup Final for three straight seasons since the Oilers (1983-85).
The Lightning will open against the Western Conference champion Avalanche on Wednesday in Denver.
It wasn’t that long ago when the Lightning trailed two-games-to-none in this series, but they trusted in the plan that’s won them two straight Cups — based around playing defensive-minded hockey, executing the forecheck, protecting the puck and dictating the pace of the game with sustained O-zone time.
The Lightning might have taken a few games to get their playoff footing back following a nine-day break after sweeping the Panthers in Round 2, but a Rangers team that had already played two Game 7s this postseason definitely appeared fatigued Saturday night.
Andrei Vasilevskiy, who stopped 20 of 21 shots, has allowed just two goals in his last eight series-clinching games.
The Lightning dominated possession in even-strength play, making the Rangers chase the puck all night. And even when New York tied the score with 6:53 left in the third on Frank Vatrano’s power-play goal, the Lightning had faith.
Twenty-one seconds after Vatrano’s goal, Steven Stamkos answered with his second goal of the game, on the receiving end of Nikita Kucherov’s pass on a 2-on-1, Stamkos rebounded in his own shot swooping across the crease.
Stamkos scored the first goal with 9:17 left in the second, rifling a wrist shot from above the right circle that darted past Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin far post past his blocker side.
Shesterkin kept the Rangers in the game with some dynamic stops throughout the night.
Alex Killorn had an up-close charge on Shesterkin late in the second that was denied, and Kucherov was also denied by Shesterkin in the period. In the final moments of the first, Brandon Hagel sprung Anthony Cirelli for an open look along the right post, but Cirelli couldn’t push the puck above Shestekin’s left pad.
The line of Hagel, Cirelli and Killorn generated 11 of the Lightning’s 25 shot attempts in the first period.
