Lightning’s road success becomes key to Stanley Cup hopes

CHICAGO – Thousands of fans crowded Curtis Hixon Park in Tampa to watch Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final, braving rain and 92-degree Florida heat while celebrating another victory for the Tampa Bay Lightning more than 1,000 miles to the north.

The way their team is playing on the road, those fans might hope the Lightning don’t come home until they have the Stanley Cup.

Tampa Bay has won four straight road games by a combined 13-4, the culmination of a remarkable turnaround for a subpar regular-season road team. The Lightning are 8-3 on the road in the postseason with a chance to add a ninth win in Game 4 tonight.

Tampa Bay’s road transformation is the type of development that wins championships, even while the players doing it can’t explain why.

“I’m not sure if we know exactly the one detail,” forward Brendan Morrow said Tuesday. “If we did, we’d do it at home, too. It could be a combination of a lot of things. But maybe when we get on the road, there may be isn’t as much focus, because we can’t have it, on matchups. We just go out and play. We’re a team that when we have no hesitation to our game, we’re very successful. So that could be part of it.”

If the Lightning aren’t thinking, it’s working wonders – particularly lately. They took three in a row from the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden in the Eastern Conference Finals last month before staring down Chicago and its raucous, anthem-cheering fans to seize Game 3 on Cedric Paquette’s late goal.

The Lightning have already compiled the best playoff road record in franchise history, and they’re two wins shy of the Los Angeles Kings’ NHL-record 10 road victories during their 2012 Stanley Cup run.

This is the same team that went a pedestrian 18-16-7 away from Amalie Arena during the regular season. The Lightning had the fewest road wins among the 16 playoff teams – and fewer than Columbus, Dallas and San Jose, who all missed the postseason.

“The way we’ve been able to play on the road, I think, has been the thing that’s impressed us, and probably a lot of people,” captain Steven Stamkos said. “We didn’t have a great record during the season on the road. That was something a lot of people talked about. It’s just our willingness to play that tight checking game – knowing that if there’s limited scoring chances, we have the talent and the depth. If we get those one or two at the end, we can find a way.”

While remarkable, the Lightning’s transformation isn’t without playoff precedent. The 2012 Kings also weren’t an impressive road team in the regular season, winning 18 games – but when they sneaked into the playoffs as the eighth seed, they rattled off 10 consecutive road wins while rampaging to their first title.

Stamkos and defenseman Victor Hedman are the only two Tampa Bay players left from the last roster to make a significant playoff run, losing the Eastern Conference Finals in 2011.