The lead is razor thin, the crowd is frantic, two of their top six defensemen have been missing the entire third period, and the clock says the Lightning are still 79 seconds from winning Game 1 against Carolina.
This is one of those moments that you could look back on days, months, years later and realize was a turning point in a glorious postseason run. Or in a postseason failure.
1:19 remaining: It begins with a faceoff between Barclay Goodrow and Vincent Trocheck in the Carolina defensive zone. The puck is knocked behind Goodrow, and Alex Killorn and Anthony Cirelli both have brief chances at controlling it before the Hurricanes grab possession.
This is the Lightning’s uncelebrated secret. For all their offensive firepower, for all their speed and snazzy skills, they won the Stanley Cup last season by playing defense better than some of the best defensive teams in the league.
And when they lost one-time scoring champion Nikita Kucherov for the entire regular season, the Lightning turned the defense up a notch in 2021. Tampa Bay was 26-0 in the regular season when holding a lead at the end of the second period and are now 5-1 in the postseason.
“That’s a phenomenal stat,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “You have to be able to play with a lead, and then you have to be able to extend a lead and protect a lead. Over the years, the guys have learned to do all three.”
![Photos: Lightning beat Hurricanes 2-1 in Game 1](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"%20viewBox="0%200%2016%209"/%3E "Photos: Lightning beat Hurricanes 2-1 in Game 1")
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Vasilevskiy makes 37 saves and Barclay Goodrow’s bad-angle goal with just over seven minutes remaining is the difference.
0:55 remaining: The Carolina goaltender and a defenseman leave the ice and are replaced by forwards. The Lightning are now facing five scorers and one defenseman.
Lightning defenseman David Savard was a surprise scratch before the game with what the team called an upper-body injury. Savard had averaged nearly 16 minutes a game in the first round series against Florida and was replaced — at least on the scoresheet — by Luke Schenn.
Schenn, however, played less than six minutes in the first two periods and it was clear the Lightning planned on using him sparingly while asking Victor Hedman, Mikhail Sergachev, Erik Cernak, Ryan McDonagh and Jan Rutta to pick up the slack.
But then Cernak crumbled to the ice after being sandwiched against the boards by two Carolina players in the final minutes of the second period. The Lightning were now being asked to win a game with, essentially, four defensemen in the third period.
“You’re going to run into situations like this where you lose guys,” McDonagh said. “You’ve just got to keep calm and trust your habits within your structure.”
0:45 remaining: Trocheck passes to Jordan Staal to the right of Tampa Bay’s net. Staal begins to maneuver behind the net, but McDonagh cuts off his path and Carolina sends the puck back out near the blue line.
Hedman and McDonagh are Tampa Bay’s two most accomplished defensemen, but both are left-handed shooters and rarely play together. But at this moment, with these stakes, the two veterans are on the ice along with Cirelli, Killorn and Goodrow.
By game’s end, Hedman will have logged 27:36 of ice time and McDonagh will have 25:13, the most either of them have played in nearly two months.
“I thought we did a good job of managing our shifts,” Hedman said. “We kept them kind of short and everybody was rolling.”
0:38 remaining: Dougie Hamilton sends a one-timer that goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy blocks. Goodrow tries to clear the rebound, but Carolina gets control and, a few seconds later, Andrei Svechnikov fires off another shot stopped by Vasilevskiy. This time, McDonagh tries to clear, but his stick snaps in two. The Lightning are effectively down one more man.
For five seconds, McDonagh skates left and right trying to use his body as a shield. That’s when Goodrow, who scored the go-ahead goal seven minutes earlier, hands him his stick.
“It’s taken a few years to get to this point,” Cooper said. “And it takes discipline to be able to close a game out.”
0:17 remaining: Teuvo Teravainen blasts a shot from near the blue line that Vasilevskiy deflects to the left side of the ice.
Vasilevskiy will finish with 37 saves on 38 shots. Including the Game 6 victory against Florida, the Lightning goaltender has stopped 66 of the last 67 shots he has faced.
0:06 remaining: Sebastian Aho passes to Teravainen who sends it to Svechnikov who blasts a one-timer toward the goal. Hedman, who was following the progress of the puck, had already dropped to his hands and knees to block the shot, then jumps up to block another shot by Teravainen.
“We know what’s expected of us back there,” McDonagh said.
0:00: The puck slides harmlessly toward center ice. The Lightning have won 2-1.
John Romano can be reached at jromano@tampabay.com. Follow @romano_tbtimes.
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