The Tampa Bay Lightning advanced to the 2015 Stanley Cup Final on Friday night by becoming the first team ever to win a Game 7 against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden.
Tampa Bay’s 2-0 victory ends a streak of seven consecutive Game 7 wins for the Rangers on home ice and prevents New York from returning to the Cup Final, where it lost to the Los Angeles Kings in five games last season.
The Lightning will play the Chicago Blackhawks or Anaheim Ducks in the Cup Final. The Western Conference finals will end Saturday with a Game 7 in Anaheim.
Ben Bishop was Tampa Bay’s best player Friday night with a 22-save shutout. He joins Patrick Roy and Tim Thomas as the only goaltenders in NHL history with multiple Game 7 shutouts in the same postseason. Bishop also shut out the Rangers in Game 5 last week.
Rangers netminder Henrik Lundqvist made several remarkable saves before giving up a somewhat soft goal to Lightning center Alex Killorn 1:54 into the third period to open the scoring. The Rangers made a strong surge throughout the period in search of the tying goal, but the Lightning added an insurance tally from Ondrej Palat at 11:17.
Palat and linemates Tyler Johnson and Nikita Kucherov combined for 24 points (11 goals, 13 assists) in the series.
The Lightning’s only other Cup Final appearance came in 2004, when they beat the Calgary Flames in seven games.
Thumbnail photo via Brad Penner/USA TODAY Sports Images
