Tampa Bay Beats Boston to Advance to NHL Eastern Conference Finals

Victor Hedman scored in the 2nd overtime period of Game 5 of the Tampa Bay Lightning–Boston Bruins Stanley Cup Eastern Conference playoff semi final to give the Lightning a 3-2 victory over the Bruins. The Lightning took the series four games to one and will play the winner of the New York Islanders–Philadelphia Flyers series in the Eastern Conference final.

The Lightning were without Nikita Kucherov for much of the game after he took who took a high stick to the head from Boston’s Zdeno Chara. It’s uncertain how much, if any, playing time he’ll miss, but his loss would be costly to the Lightning if he misses significant playing time. Kucherov led the Lighting in both goals scored (33) and assists (52) during the regular season, and he has four goals and 12 assists in 13 post season games. Tampa Bay is already without Steven Stamkos, who hasn’t played since February 25th due to injury. He’s day to day. Stamkos had 29 goals and 37 assists in 57 games before his injury. But the Lightning are very deep, and the Islanders or Flyers will have their hands full dealing with a team that has reached the conference finals four of the last six years.