Tampa Bay Lightning looking to take semi-final series against Washington Capitals – NHL playoffs
The St. Pete Times Forum will host Washington Capitals for the second time in two days this Wednesday as Tampa Bay Lightning hope to win and secure a spot in the Western Conference finals.
The Lightning have shown superb form of late and have been the team that has piled up some extravagant results. With the superb combination of players from back to the front, the Lightning have won their last six consecutive games. Their offence is in top
form and clicks whenever necessary. In their last game, they were a goal down but two goals in the 6th minute in the final period saw the Lightning winning the game 4-3 in the end.
The Capitals problems of not being able to give the finishing touch continued. They were on the receiving end once again despite the fact that they were the dominating force during the first two periods.
Not only were they in the lead, but they outshot the Lightning 27-15 during the course of the first two periods. However, the turning point of the game was the final period where the Lightning stepped up their game and made 15 shots in the final period.
Their defence was also superb as they restricted the opposing team to only five shots in the period. The period ended with the Lightning scoring twice in the final 20 minutes and leading the series 3-0.
“We weren't supposed to play safe,” Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau said. “We knew they were going to come out because they've come out in the third in the previous two games. We knew we had to keep pushing and doing what we do.”
The Lightning will be glad that they are sitting in a comfortable position right now and are only one win away from making their way into the Conference finals. Though they are very well aware of the fact that the fourth and final win in a seven-game series
is the most difficult to come up with which could be seen from their quarter-final clash with the Penguins where they came back to win from a 3-1 deficit.
Still the Lightning will be hoping to clean sweep the series and go into game four with confidence as they play this game on home ice.
“You can't (let up), especially against Washington,” Lightning captain Vincent Lecavalier said. “We're up 3-0, but when we played Pittsburgh in the first series and it was 3-1, we never gave up and we came back. We're on the other side of it, so we've got
to make sure that we go until the end.”
The Lightning certainly have the upper hand in the series but the Capitals cannot be counted out as yet. Let’s see how the game turns out to be.
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