Playoffs: #2 (A)Tampa Bay vs. #3 (A) Detroit

[Podein25]

@Claude Monet LMAO. That was the nicest goal I've "ever" seen Coburn score....nothing else is even close. If I was a betting man, I'd say he could try that upper corner rocket a 100 times and only score that one time!! Great timing, after all my bad mouthing of Coburn....I've gotta eat a bit of crow on this, regardless of how this game turns out.

And it was basically a miss hit...

[SpikeDDS]

If you'd a told me before,this series that the Bolts would win without admits scoring a single,goal, I would have laughed.

Who's laughing now?

Congrats to the Bolts on a game and a series well played.

In the end, for,me this series will be about the final 8 minutes of Game 4. Ouch!

[flyercanuck]

Thanks for nothing Detroit. You had the Bolts (and the Flyers draft pick slot) right where you wanted them. Now they'll roll over the Habs. Price only has so many fingers for that crumbling dyke.

[yave1964]

 Congrats to the Lightning, Ben Bishop finallly won a game for the Lightning, in their other three he was along for the ride, this one he was easily the best player on the ice, a big time game seven win from the goalie. Good luck against the Habs.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

7 hard fought games with just about zero break between this round and the next.....but flying high as a Bolts fan right now!

And glad to be moving on to the Montreal Canadiens.

 

Detroit came out fast and furious at the starts of both the 1st and 2nd periods especially, but TB weathered any and all storms and once that first goal was gotten, the team could just sense they could do this.

 

You could see it in the body language on the ice, you could see it in the way the Bolts pressed even more in the offensive zone.

 

Early on though, it was missed chances galore by BOTH sides.

I think heading into the 3rd, this game probably could have easily been tied at around 2 goals apiece or so....great chances that simply could not be corralled by either side to produce a goal.

 

And the game winner for Tampa Bay came from one of the UNLIKELIEST sources: one Mr. Braydon Coburn, who stepped up from his point position to receive a pass and made NO mistake on where he put it.

Not quite the 'side to side and go high' I'd been chanting most of the series, but the Callahan-to-Coburn pass was sharp going sideways, Mrazek was sliding to square up to Coburn, and #55 DID put it high as Mrazek was still in the process of sliding over.....good enough!

 

That winning goal was set up by two things:

--The Bolts battling for and winning the puck along the boards

--The Detroit defense basically ignoring Coburn (you can't really blame them...Coburn isn't exactly Erik Karlsson with the puck)....they were more concerned with surrounding Stamkos who was in the middle of the ice down low.

 

Despite the crazy chances both teams got, Ben Bishop DID make big stops when he needed to and was every bit as important as Mrazek was on the other end in keeping this game scoreless heading into what would be the final period.

 

Took more than what most people prognosticated, but at the end of Game 7, the overall better team DID move on.

I'd like to think this tough match up against the Wings 'grew up' some of the younger Lightning players some more....guess we will see what they have learned from Detroit in the next round against the Canadiens.