Lightning shut out Islanders, head back to Stanley Cup Final - Tampa Bay Times

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TAMPA — The Lightning are heading back to the Stanley Cup Final.

The reigning Cup champions continued their run of perfection in rebounding from a loss in the postseason, this time beating the New York Islanders 1-0 in a do-or-die Game 7 at Amalie Arena.

Their mission of becoming just the second team of the salary cap era to win back-to-back Cups remains alive. They will play the Montreal Canadiens in the final, which will begin Monday night at Amalie Arena.

Last year’s Eastern Conference Final win over this same Islanders team came with no fans north of the border in the Edmonton bubble. On Friday night, they were able to celebrate their trip to the final with about 14,800 fans at Amalie.

In winning their previous six playoff series, they closed out their opponent in six games or fewer. The Islanders pushed them to a new limit, but with their season on the line, the Lightning played one of their most disciplined games of the postseason.

Dating to the beginning of last year’s playoff run, the Lightning are 13-0 when coming off a loss.

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Tampa Bay faces their first elimination game in three years at tonight's Game 7, when their chance to go to the Stanley Cup Final is on the line.

This group has talked a lot about how it became a championship team when deciding to buy in on defense, and that was on display in Game 7. All the Lightning needed was a second-period short-handed goal from Yanni Gourde. Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 18 shots and has a shutout in four straight playoff series-clinching games, which is an NHL record.

Clearly still feeling the effects of a cross check on his first shift of Game 6 that forced him from the game, Lightning star forward Nikita Kucherov returned and despite managing his injury, just his presence was valuable in Game 7.

Kucherov clearly was fighting off discomfort throughout the game. On the bench, he fidgeted while trying to sit on a wooden bar stool on the Lightning bench. During commercial breaks, he went onto the ice to get extra skating time to try to loosen up.

Yanni Gourde put the Lightning up on a short-handed goal with 1:49 into the second period, coming off the bench on a line change, charging to the net and taking a feed from Anthony Cirelli in the right corner and burying a wrist shot past Islanders goaltender Semyon Varlamov stickside.

After Barclay Goodrow’s cross checking penalty, the Lightning were on the penalty kill for this first time of the night when defenseman Ryan McDonagh held the puck deep in the Lightning zone, then hit Alex Killorn in the neutral zone.

Killorn sent a touch pass to Anthony Cirelli, who calmly took the puck into Islanders zone and curled back along the far wall and waited for Gourde to charge toward the net. He sent a pass through Islanders forward Josh Bailey’s legs and onto Gourde’s stick as he went uncovered through the slot.

Gourde’s score was the first Game 7 short-handed goal by a Lightning player in franchise history and just the 10th in the playoffs dating to 1996.

The Lightning came out strong out of the gate, creating scoring chances on the forecheck and dominating in offensive zone time. But despite outshooting the Islanders 14-5 in the first period, they couldn’t break through against Islanders goaltender Semyon Varlamov.

New York didn’t get many chances in the opening period, but might have had the best scoring chance of the first 20 minutes when Game 6 hero Anthony Beavuvillier had a breakaway that Vasilevskiy turned away with a remarkable right pad save.

The Lightning defensemen were active in the offensive zone, especially early on, but it was how they protected Vasilevskiy by blocking shots and winning puck battles behind the net that might have been more important in shutting down the Islanders.

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