Lightning and Golden Knights Advance in Stanley Cup Playoffs

The Tampa Bay Lightning and Vegas Golden Knights closed out their semi final playoff series to advance to their conference finals in May 6th NHL playoff action.

In the Eastern Conference, the Boston Bruins beat the Lightning three of four during the regular season, but couldn’t get the job done when it counted the most. After dropping Game 1 to the Bruins 6-2, the Lightning reeled off four straight wins to take the series 4-1. The Lightning, the top seed in the East, wrapped it up with a 3-1 victory in Tampa. The Bruins top regular season scorer, Brad Marchand, was ordered by the NHL to stop licking opponent’s faces (yes, licking) after he was seen licking Tampa Bay’s Ryan Callahan in Game 4. Perhaps it’s a sign that it isn’t your year when one of your star players starts licking opposing players.

Tampa Bay will face the winner of the Pittsburgh—Washington series for the Eastern Conference championship. The Capitals lead that series 3-2.

In the Western Conference, the Vegas Golden Knights continued their amazing inaugural season by shutting out the San Jose Sharks 3-0 in Game 6 of their series in San Jose. Vegas’ veteran goalie Marc-Andre Fleury was in the nets for his fourth shutout of the post season. Fleury has won three Stanley Cups with his old team, the Pittsburgh Penguins, so he’s been here before, but the Golden Knights season has been amazing.

Vegas advances to the Western Conference championship against either Nashville or Winnipeg. The Jets lead that series 3-2.