Lightning shut out Hurricanes to book place in Stanley Cup semifinals
Tampa to face winner of Islanders-Bruins series in next round
Andrei Vasilevskiy was at his best again with the Tampa Bay Lightning in position to close out a playoff series.
Throw in a couple of timely goals from Brayden Point and Ross Colton, and the reigning Stanley Cup champions are a step closer to playing for another title.
Vasilevskiy posted his third straight shutout in a series-clinching victory, helping the Lightning beat the Carolina Hurricanes 2-0 on Tuesday night to win the second-round series in five games.
Tampa Bay is now 5-1 on the road in the playoffs, including taking a 2-0 series lead in the first round against Florida and then claiming all three in this series.
"We've got a lot of confidence in our group," Point said. "I thought we had a pretty good regular season where we were kind of building to this. ... Yeah, it's just a belief in our group. We've got four lines and all the D and great goaltending. So we just feel confident."
WATCH | Bolts blank Canes to advance to Cup semifinals:
It started with Vasilevskiy, a former Vezina Trophy winner as the NHL's top goaltender and a finalist this year. He allowed just two goals on 70 shots through the first two games to open this series.
Then, after a wild Game 4 in Florida that saw each team score four second-period goals, Vasilevskiy turned away every shot. Among his saves Tuesday was a huge glove stop of a 2-on-1 short-handed chance by Carolina's Vincent Trocheck.
Point's goal came moments later on a gorgeous effort. He took a feed from Alex Killorn to his backhand side near the crease, went to his forehand before returning to the backhand to get Carolina netminder Alex Nedeljkovic off balance just enough to score at 4:06 of the second.
"They're both two big-time players that made big-time plays," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said of the sequence.
The Hurricanes just couldn't do the same.
"He made some big saves, timely saves," Carolina captain Jordan Staal said of Vasilevskiy. "Good goaltenders do that. He did a good job of not letting us get some momentum and get the crowd into it."
Next up for Tampa Bay in the NHL semifinals is the winner of the series between the New York Islanders and the Boston Bruins. The Islanders lead that best-of-seven series 3-2 and can close it out Wednesday at home.
It was a frustrating finish for the Hurricanes, who were in the playoffs for the third straight season after a nine-season drought. They won the Central Division title for their first division crown since winning the Cup in 2006, and were in the Presidents' Trophy race until the final week of the season.
"There's a next step we've got to find," Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "That's what's left."
