Tampa Bay Lightning Prepare For An Intense Game 5

The Tampa Bay Lightning, coming off that spectacular come from behind overtime victory Thursday night in Detroit, are preparing for game five at Amalie Arena on Saturday evening.

The 3 to 2 OT win was one for the ages. Down by two goals with less than five minutes to play, Tyler Johnson scored the team’s first goal in over 119 minutes against Detroit goalies. That opened the floodgates as they scored a second goal 77 seconds as Ondrej Palat took a beauty of a pass from Johnson to tie the game. Then two minutes into the overtime, Triplet Tyler Johnson scored the game winner and series tying goal, that sent thousands of Lightning fans into frenzy.

Now the series turns into a two out of three with two of those games here at home for the Tampa Bay Lightning. This is exactly the reason that you play the 82 regular season games, for home ice advantage in the playoffs. The Tampa Bay Lightning won more home games, 32 games, than any other NHL team.

In fact, no other team won more than 28 home games, so this is one aspect of the Lightning season in which they have no peer. They are playing this most important game in front of their home crowd because they own the better regular season record than the Red Wings. They need to make all of that count in game five.

The news on Detroit neutralizing forward, Luke Glendening is that he will play in game five. After missing the last seven minutes of game four when a cut on his thumb required several stitches, there may have been some question whether he would make it back but it is, after all, the playoffs and Luke will play.

For the Lightning, will this be the game that Steven Stamkos scores? Give credit to Detroit Red Wings coach, Mike Babcock, for designing the game plan that has kept Stamkos off the goal sheet through four games. But as all Tampa fans know, you cannot hold Stammer down; you can only hope to contain him. Well, Detroit has contained him and I have a feeling that this is the game that our captain breaks through.

On Friday, Coach Jon Cooper said “All we did was put ourselves back in the series. We didn’t win the series; clearly, the next game is a pivotal game.” I am 100% positive that this message was hammered home to his team. All game four did was bring the team even from the brink of elimination.

The series has been a back and forth test of the mettle of each team. Highs and lows and momentum shifts with the Lightning ending the last game with Big Mo in their hands. Do they carry that into game five? There is no guarantee but with a sellout crowd, with Coach Cooper requesting that all fans be as loud as Section 307, I am here to tell you that it will happen.

We have seen flashes of brilliance from this team throughout the year. Remember the 4 to 0 shutout against the Chicago Blackhawks at Amalie in the last game in February? At the time, everyone was in agreement that game was the best game the team played all season.

Then three weeks later, the hated Boston Bruins came into town, do you remember that game? How could you forget? Stamkos charged Brad Marchand after Marchand took a run at Valtteri Filppula. Stammer doing his best WWE imitation took down Marchand like he stole something. That fired up the team, who went on to beat the Bruins 5 to 3. Again, many observers said THAT was their best game of the season.

This is the game that the team has been preparing for all season. It is why all six pre-season games, all 82 regular season games and the four playoff games leading up to this game were so important. They were the last team to score in this series. They were the team that won the last game in this series. They have no more injuries. The players are at 100% health. Coop can move the pieces and has the last line change in this game.

Moving on to the second round of the NHL playoffs is within their grasp but they need to play their very best game now. I cannot begin to imagine what is in the collective mind of the Detroit Red Wings. They were less than five minutes from taking a commanding 3 games to 1 lead on Tampa.

As much as the Lightning won game four, the Wings lost it and lost it in a matter of seven minutes and 51 seconds they imploded. They will not go out quietly unless the Lightning take them out of the game with their speed and show them why they were the highest scoring team in the NHL.

We got ourselves a good series and this is the most important game for the Lightning so far this season. We have seen the Lightning play some fantastic hockey this season. It has led to this game and I have a strong feeling that this will be the best we see them play. Today. Game five. All in, Lightning over Red Wings to put them on the brink. Puck drops at 6:00 p.m.

Next: Tyler Johnson Sparks Offense In OT Shocker

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