Blue Jackets Sweep Top Seeded Lightning; Islanders Sweep Penguins

The Tampa Bay Lightning cruised to a record tying 62 victory regular season, but it all starts over in the Stanley Cup playoffs. The #1 seeded Lightning were swept in four games by the #8 Columbus Blue Jackets in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs, and it really wasn’t even close, except for Game 1.

In the opener, the Lightning got off to a 3-0 first period, and things were going along as expected. But Columbus held Tampa Bay scoreless in the 2nd period, picking up one goal themselves. The Blue Jackets scored three more in the third, while again holding Tampa Bay scoreless to pick up a 4-3 victory. Columbus followed that with 5-1, 3-1, and 7-3 victories to win the series, the first post season series victory in franchise history. It was also the first time a #1 seed was swept in the first round of the playoffs.

No one scored more than one goal for Tampa Bay, the team that averaged a league leading 3.89 goals per game. Columbus goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, who has tended to have great regular seasons but lousy post seasons, put that in his rear view mirror as well. It took a while this season for the Blue Jackets to put it all together, but they did so late in the season, winning seven of their last eight to make it to the playoffs, and are hot at the right time. They don’t look like an eight seed, and with the Lightning out, the Eastern Conference is up in the air.

While the Blue Jackets were finishing off the Lightning, the New York Islanders continued their remarkable turnaround season by sweeping the Pittsburgh Penguins in another Eastern Conference first round. The Islanders finished in second in the Metropolitan Division with 103 points, just one point behind the first place Washington Capitals, after missing the playoffs for the last two years. The Islanders allowed just 2.33 goals per game, best in the NHL, and their tremendously improved defense has turned it around. The Islanders won Game 1 4-3 in overtime, but then allowed just one goal in each of the next three games.

Columbus awaits the winner of the Toronto Maple Leafs-Boston Bruins series while the Islanders will play the winner of the Washington Capitals-Carolina Hurricanes series.