New York. For the third year in a row, Tampa Bay Lightning is ready for the conference finals in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
They completed their “sweep” over Florida with a 2-0 home win at Amalie Arena last night.
I’m so proud of what we’ve achieved in recent years, this will be the sixth conference since John Cooper took over as coach. We can only enjoy it for a few days, then it’s time to recharge, Victor Hedmann tells Sportbladet.
It has only been a week since the long-awaited “Battle of Florida” began, but it is over.
Defending champion Tampa thus claimed their fourth straight win over the Panthers last night and finished there with a “sweep.”
Surely no one thought so – not even the Lightning players themselves.
– Never go into a match series with such thoughts, what matters is always one match at a time Victor Hedman On the phone from his hometown of eternal summer on the west coast of Florida.
– But it’s too strong of us to do something like that against such an incredibly strong opponent and we’d be happy to take the extra days off we get now.
Just as Victor predicted, the Panthers defended their best efforts in the entire series last night. They really played with the desperation of a team threatened by elimination, attacking with violent force and winning shots in the first period by 18-3 – to increase and then increase to 49-26 before the evening, and the season was over. But they did not get a single disc with Andrei Vasilevsky – as usual absolutely amazing in really big matches.
– Yes, it is the best, says Victor laconic.
Above all, he kept us in the game in the first period and then made a whole series of decisive saves.
proud hedman
In Game Three, Tampa, in his typical fashion, managed the two needed goals – one in an empty sack at the end – and then it was clear that they would play the Conference Final for the third year in a row.
– It’s really big, feels proud, continues the Swedish backpacking star from Ö-vik.
We talked about it after that, that you have to take a step back and appreciate what we’ve achieved in recent years. This will be our sixth conference final since Cobb (coach John Cooper) took charge in 2012, and seventh for me and Stamkos. You didn’t really think he’d let you be a part of it when you came here. But we can only enjoy it for a few days, then it’s time to recharge.
Yes, because then another Final Conference begins – either against the Carolina Hurricanes or the New York Rangers.
– It doesn’t matter what the opponent is, you have to be able to defeat everyone if you want to get to the final, Feg comments.
