Chicago, Tampa Bay all even again in Stanley Cup Final
TAMPA, Fla. – Four games deep in the Stanley Cup Final, all that’s clear is just how little separates the Chicago Blackhawks and the Tampa Bay Lightning.
These two conference champions have two victories, nine goals and 24 penalty minutes apiece, while Chicago has outshot Tampa Bay 107-104.
Neither team has led by more than one goal at any point in the Final’s first four games, which have all been decided by one goal apiece for the first time since 1968 and just the third time in NHL history.
The Lightning stayed overnight in Chicago after Wednesday’s 2-1 loss before heading home to prepare for Game 5 on Saturday night at Amalie Arena.
They traveled with the knowledge they missed early opportunities to get Chicago in serious trouble in this series — and they know the fate of other opponents who failed to put the Blackhawks away.
“I think you’re looking at two very equal teams, for starters. Both teams have elite skill, elite speed. What we lack in their Stanley Cup experience and gold medals at the Olympics, we make up for in our youthful enthusiasm and speed,” Lightning associate coach Rick Bowness said Thursday after the team returned to Florida.
“For either one of us to think we’re going to go out there and control 60 minutes of the game … I just don’t see it happening. There are moments in each of the four games that we were in control of it, and there are moments, like the second period last night, that they were in control of it,” Bowness added. “You have to give credit to both teams. We’re good hockey clubs.”
Goaltending also hasn’t been a deciding factor in this series, even with ample reason to think it might be.
The Lightning don’t know yet whether Andrei Vasilevskiy will get another start in net after the 20-year-old Russian rookie played Game 4 in place of Ben Bishop, who has an undisclosed injury. Vasilevskiy won Game 2 in relief, and he played well Wednesday in his first playoff start, giving Tampa Bay little reason to worry about the potentially precarious position.