The 6 Best Tampa Bay Lightning Stats From Round Two

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The Tampa Bay Lightning have looked like a nearly unstoppable force through much of the playoffs, despite a strong push-back from the Montreal Canadiens in the second round. But it is the Lightning who move on to face the New York Rangers in the Eastern Conference Championships.

Here are the 6 best stats from the Lightning’s second round series.

1. Bishop to King

Ben Bishop posted a 9-2-0 record versus the Montreal Canadiens this season (regular and postseason combined). He became the first goaltender since Glen Hall in 1960-61 to defeat the Canadiens at least nine times in a single season.

2. More Bishop

When Max Pacioretty scored a third period goal in Game 1 against the Lightning, it ended a 133:08 shutout streak for Bishop that stretched back into Game 6 against the Detroit Red Wings. It’s the second longest playoff shutout streak in Lightning history.

Tampa Bay Lightning
Nikita Kucherov (Amy Irvin / The Hockey Writers)

3. La Forward Nikita

Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov was only the third player in Tampa Bay history to score six goals in a single playoff series. One of the other two? Tyler JohnsonM.a< in Tampa's Round 1 series against the Red Wings. The third was Ruslan Fedotenko in the 2004 Eastern Conference Final.

The last team to have at least two players score six goals in a single series was the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2009, according to Elias. In that series, Sidney Crosby grabbed eight goals in one series and Evgeni Malkin grabbed six in another.

Kucherov was also just the second Lightning player to post three points in a series-clinching win. The other was Frederik Modin in 2004.

Kucherov also became the youngest player in Lightning history to score an overtime goal in the postseason at 21 years 318 days.

(Anne-Marie Sorvin-USA TODAY Sports)
(Anne-Marie Sorvin-USA TODAY Sports)

4. Beating the Buzzer

Prior to this season, there had been only two goals ever scored in the final two seconds of any playoff game. Bob Pulford did it for the Toronto Maple Leafs on April 11, 1964 and Jussi Jokinen did it on April 29, 2009 for the Carolina Hurricanes.

It has happened twice this season, with Tyler Johnson doing it for the Lightning and Joel Ward doing it for the Capitals. Johnson’s crossed the goal line with 1.1 seconds left in a tie game.

Johnson is the first player in Lightning history to score a game-winning goal in the final 10 seconds of regulation during the playoffs.

5. Game 2 Scoring Spree

In Game 2 the Lightning tied a franchise record with four power play goals in a single playoff game. They also had six players post a multi-point game in the postseason for just the second time in franchise history. Both of those records were set in a single game as well, April 23, 2011 against the Penguins. The Lightning won that game 8-2 and had eight players post multi-point games.

6. How’s Your Bracket

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Thanks to the NHL and team PR Twitter accounts, as well as Elias Sports Bureau for some of the statistics.