Despite both coming off long layoffs after sweeping their previous opponents, the Tampa Bay Lightning looked fresh in victory on Saturday, while the Boston Bruins appeared to be still shaking off the cobwebs.
Chasing a second Stanley Cup, Tampa Bay beat Boston 5-2 to draw first blood in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference final series, with the home team unable to recover from a three-goal salvo mid-way through the first period.
The Tampa Bay Lightning’s first-year head coach Guy Boucher credited the confidence Tampa Bay has gained during what has become an eight-game winning streak going back to April 23 as the key to their -improved play.
Photo: Reuters
“We only focus on our emotions, not the other team’s emotions. We were really calm and we stayed calm,” Boucher told reporters. “Once you get to the playoffs, you have to figure out a whole new level of maturity.”
The Lightning struck quickly and decisively, with three goals in an 85 second span, a club record for a playoff game. The 19 seconds between goals one and two was also a team playoff record.
Finnish left winger Sean Bergenheim, 27, became the top scorer of this year’s playoffs with his snap shot 11:15 into the game, kicking off the Lightning’s blitz.
Bergenheim struck while Bruins’ defensemen Dennis Seidenberg flailed in front of the net after -losing his stick in a collision and could only kick away a shot by Dominic Moore, which the winger pounced on to open the scoring.
Moments later, defenseman Brett Clark backhanded the puck past Thomas and right wing Teddy Purcell performed a similar feat at 12:40 in the first period, leaving the Bruins shell-shocked and the capacity crowd in stunned silence.
“It’s a good feeling, but to be honest, the best feeling is that we are winning,” Bergenheim said of his league-leading goal tally.
Boucher also credited the team effort.
“It’s not about him, it’s about his line. It’s about team chemistry. It’s about players who will gel,” Boucher said, adding that Bergenheim and center Dominic Moore were “like brothers.”
Tampa Bay’s winning streak goes back to Game 5 of their series against the Pittsburgh Penguins on April 23. They then demolished the top-seeded Washington Capitals.
The Lightning had not played since May 4 and the Bruins finished off Philadelphia two days later, but refused to blame their sluggish play on the extended break.
“Both teams had the same layoff. We actually came out playing pretty good,” goaltender Tim Thomas said. “I just credit it to our inability to do what we needed to do.”
Thomas, rock-solid against Philadelphia, was briefly shaken by the Lightning’s rapid-fire hat-trick.
“It’s a tough hole to get out of,” he said.
By contrast, veteran Tampa Bay goalie Dwayne Roloson hung on through a tough second-period assault from the Bruins, who came up empty on four power plays on the night.
The 41-year-old Canadian saved 31 of 33 shots.
“Roli [Roloson] is making key saves when they get around what we are trying to do ... They have good shooters and good passers and obviously since they have made it this far, they are good,” Tampa Bay forward Marc-Andre Bergeron said. “We do not want them to be on the power play too much.”
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
A soccer jersey carrying a national map including disputed Western Sahara has become a hot commodity in Morocco after a diplomatic dispute with Algeria. Retailers said RS Berkane jerseys have been flying off the shelves after a Confederation of African Football (CAF) Cup match against Algerian club USM Alger was canceled last month over the jerseys. “We are overwhelmed by the influx of messages and requests,” said Brahim Rabii, representative of the official RS Berkane jersey distributor. Algeria broke off diplomatic relations with Morocco in 2021, partly over the issue of Western Sahara. The former Spanish colony is largely controlled by Morocco, but claimed