After two initial away losses, good advice was expensive for Tampa Bay. At home in Tampa, on the other hand, there have been two straight victories and now it is a tie in the rock-hard semifinal series against the New York Rangers.
The home team took the lead early via Pat Maroon in the first period, and extended to 2-0 in the second via Nikita Kutjerov. In the third, the home team pulled away to 3-0 via team captain Steven Stamkos.
That proved to be enough to secure the second home win in a row, before the match series moves to Manhattan again, where the Rangers took the two initial victories.
– We have to take a match up there and it will not be easy. It is definitely a challenge, they are strong at home. But if we do what we are supposed to and play like tonight, we are hard to beat no matter where we play. So I still like our chances, says Tampa Bay star star Victor Hedman to Sportbladet.
Rangers shot the most in the match, 34 shots against 31, but Andrei Vasilevsky had a good day between the posts and held tight until the final sprint.
In the end, the onslaught became too much for the Russian star goalkeeper, when Rangers pressed on with six outfielders against four, after Alex Killorn went on an expulsion in the 16th minute.
But the Rangers did not come any closer than that, and the final result was finally written 4-1 after Ondrej Palat hit one last puck in the open goal with nine seconds left of the match.
– I think we played really well tonight. It felt like we had good control over the events, says Hedman.
The winner of the best of seven matches will face Colorado, who defeated Edmonton 4-0 in matches, in the Stanley Cup final.