BOSTON -- Should Tampa Bay not advance to the Stanley Cup Final for the second time in franchise history, members of the Lightning could cost this summer thinking about what could have been in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals.
The Lightning dominated the Boston Bruins in the first 20 minutes Monday night at TD Garden. They thwarted 3 Boston power plays, including a 4-on-3 for 97 seconds. Guy Boucher's club swarmed the Bruins and goaltender Tim Thomas in the third phase.
Yet here are the Lightning, tracking 3-2 in this series after a 3-1 defeat in Game 5.
nhlWid=Math.random()*10000000000000000; document.write('"That's the course you feel you know,
nhl jerseys," Simon Gagne said when queried if this was a lost chance. "You feel that that game was up in the atmosphere for both teams."
Added Steven Stamkos: "Yeah, it namely tough. You don't obtain when you deserve to all the time and that's the playoffs. The ones you deserve to win you ought win and you must win to be successful in the playoffs. We've been on both ends of the spectrum and we can't look at it favor that right now. We've got to learn from that and regroup."
Tampa Bay outshot Boston 14-4 in the beginning period but only led 1-0 at the first intermission. The Lightning too had one 11-8 advantage in the third period, including several premier scoring opportunities, but Thomas was able to fend them off and defend a one-goal guide.
Thomas hadn't actually "stolen" a game in this series ahead Monday night, but he left Lightning shooters befuddled with some spectacular saves.
"I think in the first, one time we had them hemmed in there for two minutes on the power play -- that would have been nice to obtain an there," Ryan Malone said. "But you have to tip your cap to those guys for not letting the puck across the line. It's out of our control now. We've got to regroup and focus about the next 1. There's naught we tin do about it."
In the end it was the power activity that failed the Lightning more than everything. They went 0-for-4 above the man vantage -- always in the premier 24 minutes of the compete. It was the second period this array (Game 2 being the additional) where a near, tight marathon could have been swayed along a goal from Tampa Bay's power melodrama and it didn't happen.
The Lightning had the altitude power-play percentage in the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs through the first 2 rounds, merely they are merely 2 of 18 in this series opposition the Bruins. An extra-man goal (alternatively two) in Game 2 or Game 5 and it might be Tampa Bay looking to close out the series Wednesday night.
"We're definitely going apt look at the tapes. That's something we take a lot of pride of," Gagne said. "We had a lot of success on that since the begin of the playoffs. We know thatspecial teams could be the difference principally in that series and for us immediately we had a couple of chance to go out there and try to tie the game and we definitely no proficient to build a lot. So it's someone were definitely going to see at tapes and try to play better next game."
Added Boucher: "I think what happened on our power play -- [we] got a mini too cute,
personalized nfl jerseys, and if you look at the replays, you know, a few times it was just an inch away. And so if you score that second goal,
cheap nhl jerseys, apparently you feel a little differ, and I think it's more the [two] second-period power plays that might have gotten to us."
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