Steven Stamkos scored both goals to give Lightning strength to the Rangers, who saw their amazing and dramatic playoff run end in the conference final. The Lightning are aiming to become the first three-team team to win the championship after the New York Islanders in 1983. The Stanley Cup final between Lightning and the Colorado Avalanche will begin Wednesday in Denver. The Avalanche are looking for their first Stanley Cup since 2001. The Eastern Conference Final was described as a battle between Lightning goalkeeper Andrei Vasilevskiy and Rangers goalkeeper Igor Shesterkin, and match 6 was a fitting climax. Sesterkin made 28 saves, several of them spectacular, to keep the Rangers in the game. Vasilevski (20 saves), meanwhile, continued his mastery in possible games that win the series. He now has 13 wins in 24 career playoff series and has conceded just one goal or less in 11 of those games. 2 About The first period was without a score thanks to Sesterkin. He made white rebounds to Pat Maroon and Anthony Cirelli and a fantastic skate rebound on a diversion from Pierre-Edouard Bellemare. He did more magic in the second period with a terrible rebound on an opportunity by Nikita Kucherov. Sesterkin made 16 saves before Lightning captain Steven Stamkos fired a long shot from the right flank over the goalkeeper’s stick. It was the 40th goal in the playoffs of the Lightning captain’s career and her eighth since the season. Lightning finished the second period 1-0 with a 23-13 shooting advantage. The Rangers finally won an opportunity for power play at 2:26 in the third period. They entered the game with the best conversion rate in the playoffs (31.5%) but had only 3:15 power-play time in the previous two games. Lightning killed this human advantage – but not the second in New York. With Stamko on penalties for hooking, Frank Vatrano made a shot next to Vasilevski for his fifth in the playoffs at 13:07 of the third period. But Stamkos would answer ninth in the playoffs just 21 seconds later. Kucherov found Stamko passing in the range of the Rangers. He threw the elf into Sesterkin’s glove, but the elf erupted in the air and bounced off Stamko’s foot into the net for a 2-1 lead. The goal was confirmed by a video review from the NHL Situation Room. The Rangers failed to draw. Their attack dropped to just one goal for the third consecutive game. Rangers coach Gerard Galland hinted before game 6 that he could make line-up changes and they were plentiful. He ousted striker Kaapo Kakko, the No. 2 overall pick in 2019, for the first time since the season and replaced him with striker Dryden Hunt. He also broke up the duo of Chris Kreider and Mike Zibanejad, who had established the Rangers’ most productive line in the playoffs. Lightning lost defender Victor Hedman for the last 10:45 of the second period after a header by Rangers striker Alexis LaFrenier. But Hedman returned to start the third period.
