OT win sends Lightning past Isles into Cup Final
Tampa Bay’s Anthony Cirelli scored 13:18 into overtime in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals Thursday night, and the Lightning advanced to the Stanley Cup Final with a 2-1 win over the New York Islanders in Edmonton.Cirelli took a feed from Barclay Goodrow from behind the net and fired from point-blank range. The puck bounced off the post, skittered along the goal line and then ticked off goalie Semyon Varlamov’s skate and into the back of the net to end the best-of-seven series.
Cirelli raised his arms in celebration moments before the red light went on and the officials acknowledged it was a goal.“The emotions (are) just so high,” Cirelli said. “We worked all year. Our goal is to be playing for the Stanley Cup and we’re here now. I think it’s every kid’s dream to be in this situation.”
Victor Hedman scored in the first period and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 26 saves for the Lightning, who will face the Dallas Stars for the Stanley Cup. Game 1 of the best-of-seven championship series is scheduled for Saturday.The Finals berth is the third for the Lightning, who won it all by beating the Calgary Flames in 2004 and fell to the Chicago Blackhawks in 2015.
Devon Toews scored in the first period and Varlamov made 46 saves for the Islanders, who were in seventh place in the Eastern Conference when the pandemic ended the regular season before reaching the conference finals for the first time in 27 years.“Just a special group in our room,” Islanders captain Anders Lee said. “And till that very last minute, just every single one of us believed in each other and what we were doing and the road we were on. Obviously, we came up short, but there’s just a huge sense of pride right now in every single one of those guys in our room and everyone involved.”
