Tampa Bay Lightning strikes and shutouts Philadelphia Flyers in a 4-0 shutout
Looks like the current ice storm in Philadelphia has affected the Flyers big time!
The leader of the Western Conference, Philadelphia Flyers seemed to still be on All-Star Break in the opening minutes of a match which turned out to be a huge disappointment as Tampa Bay Lightning shutout Philly 4-0 in regulation game-play.
Was it the Home Advantage?
Having the advantage of home court can’t be put into effect in this game because Tampa has just played outstanding and one would agree that this type of performance could have been given anywhere.
Veteran goalie, Dwayne Roloson, who was traded to Lightning for Ty Wishart on January 1, showed that he is unquestionably one of the best in the game today, making it his 4th shutout of the season all within 11 games with Lightning, making an
impressive 38 saves (1.000% in the game) against Flyers.
"I don't think it's a roll", Roloson said, showing his humbleness to his performance, "I just think that the team is playing great. I'm fortunate enough to be making the best of an opportunity".
It’s not easy to say who number 1 really is despite the standings.
A match of this competence is always considered to be such that it would lead into overtime or shootouts, but not this time as the two biggest teams of the Western Conference went at it and only one came out of the settling smoke as a champion.
Considering that Tampa has won all three games against Philly this season, their win wasn’t that big of a surprise as the way they won.
Now it isn’t far until Tampa will be the 1st in the Western Conference observing that it is only two points shy of the top spot.
The confrontation started off great for Lightning as right wing, Teddy Purcell, scored two goals in the first 2 minutes of game-time, both were assisted by Simon Gagne.
Steve Downie scored the last goal of the first period at the 14:24 mark on the clock, giving Tampa a huge 3-0 lead.
This made Flyers' coach, Peter Laviolette, frustrated at Flyers' goalie, Sergei Bobrovsky, who let 3 out of just 6 shots hit the net, and replaced him with Brian Boucher.
"When you're down 2-0 on two shots, I think it surprised everybody," Philadelphia's coach, Peter Laviolette, said, venting his irritation.
Strategies don’t always work out the way you want them to.
It had seemed that such a move was successful when no goal was recorded in the 2nd period but redeemed temporary as leading scorer of the NHL, Steven Stamkos, scored again in the 3rd period, finalizing the lock out for Tampa.
Mike Richards, Flyers’ captain, referred it to be “one of those days” when what you’re looking to achieve just doesn’t seem to happen.
What can we expect now?
The Bolts seemed to be prepared for anything now as this match has certainly boosted their confidence to an unprecedented level this season.
Having 6 consecutive wins, the biggest winning streak in the NHL at the moment, a defence that includes Dwayne Roloson and an offense with the highest NHL scorer, Steven Stamkos, it’s not hard to see who might hold the Stanley Cup high this time.
If they can keep this up, this would be the second time that the Bolts win the cup, previously winning it in the 2004-2005 playoff finals against Calgary Flames by 4-2.
Philly can still widely improve its game as this is just its third loss in the past 13 games and it isn’t number 1 in the Western Conference for nothing, who can forget that.
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