The National Hockey League first introduced a best-of-seven format to decide a playoff series in 1939. Since then, there have been 159 match-ups that have required the final seventh game to be played. Seven of those have taken place at Madison Square Garden in New York, where the Rangers have failed to lose.
Until tonight.
The Tampa Bay Lightning are headed to their first Stanley Cup Final since 2004 thanks to Alex Killorn‘s goal 1:54 into the third period of Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final. Ondrej Palat extended their lead to two at 11:17. On the defensive side of things, Ben Bishop‘s 22-save shutout lead the way, but it was a pure team effort for captain Steven Stamkos and his club that allowed them to storm ahead in the series-deciding game.
Tampa Bay came into tonight’s contest with a record of 4-1 at MSG this season, including two postseason victories in Games 2 and 5.
Make that 5-1.
GAME 7
The storylines of Game 7 began early when Ryan McDonagh, the man who wears the “C” on the chest for the Rangers, had gone to the dressing room prior to the game for unspecified reasons.
Despite #27 in blue’s absence, Game 7 had begun. The Saint Paul, MN native took the ice for the first time at 12:41 and had three shifts for 1:47 of ice-time in total in the opening frame. Lightning goaltender Ben Bishop had stopped 89 out of 93 shots in three games in New York in the series, but struggled with his rebound control early in Game 7.
On three of the Rangers five shots in the first period, Bishop pushed out the puck directly into the slot, but the defensive core in Tampa Bay were dependent on sending the puck away from high-percentage areas. The increased involvement of the blueliners for the Lightning allowed sharp transitions up ice, which in turn led to offensive zone time.
But at the end of the first period, both teams were kept off the scoresheets. Tampa Bay outshot New York 9-5, signaling an impressive start on the road for Jon Cooper’s club, but Rangers netminder Henrik Lundqvist kept them off the board whenever a scoring chance came to fruition.
The second period of Game 7 had a calming atmosphere attached to it similar to that of Game 5 as both teams were responsible and poise with their positioning throughout the three zones of the ice. The Lightning had one of their best shifts of the period with four minutes to go, as defenseman Jason Garrison found himself wide open at the left circle, but Lundqvist denied the chance with his glove.
Lundqvist once again proved why he could be in the running for the Conn Smythe Trophy after absolutely robbing Tyler Johnson at 18:26 with the right pad. Nikita Kucherov won a battle along the boards behind the goal and fed a pass to the top of the crease to Johnson, who seemed to have the left side of the net available, until the Swedish goalie lashed out his leg to keep the Lightning off the board.
Rangers head coach Alain Vigneault hoped to generate offense on two penalties that Tampa Bay was flagged down for in the second period, but over-anxiousness and a lack of communication spelled doom for the power play unit which was sitting at an efficiency rate of 21.7% coming into the game.
Forty minutes went by, but the score remained a 0-0 tie. The shot category continued to be lead by the Lightning as their 19 shots countered the Rangers 11 through two periods. Ryan Callahan lead all players with six going into the second intermission.
Alex Killorn finally broke the tie 1:54 into the third period to give the Lightning the lead, which silenced MSG in the process. The 6’2″ forward drove past the Rangers blue line and spun off of Dominic Moore (who met him at the boards) and threw a backhanded shot towards the net that Lundqvist failed to track. The puck trickled through the legs of Lundqvist, providing Killorn with his seventh goal of the postseason.
After a brief push-back from the Rangers, the Lightning found the back of the net once more and doubled their lead thanks to Ondrej Palat at 11:17. After Ben Bishop sent a pass to Johnson in the neutral zone, he sauced the puck to a streaking Palat at the left circle, whose blistering wrist shot beat Lundqvist above the glove. Palat’s tally gave Johnson his league-leading 21st point of the postseason.
Tampa Bay’s constricting defensive trap failed to give the Rangers the smallest amount of life as Bishop easily steered away shots from the outside. New York never seemed to settle down offensively the entire game and were forced out of the zone several times without a clean entry.
At the end of sixty minutes, the Lightning had shut out the Rangers 2-0 in their own building. The Presidents’ Trophy-winning New York Rangers season is now over, but the Tampa Bay Lightning still have work to do. They go on to face the winner of tomorrow’s Game 7 between the Chicago Blackhawks and the Anaheim Ducks in the Stanley Cup Final.
After the two teams shook hands, Steven Stamkos was awarded the Prince of Wales trophy on his team’s behalf for capturing the Eastern Conference.
He didn’t touch it.
The real prize lies four wins away.
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