—

8 p.m.

Ben Bishop made 13 saves for Tampa Bay and the Lightning were locked in a scoreless tie with the Chicago Blackhawks through the first period.

Bishop stood his ground in goal, with the Blackhawks, leading the series 3-2, trying to lock up their third Stanley Cup in six years.

The first 7 minutes of the period were cautious, with both teams feeling each other out a bit and Chicago holding an early 3-1 edge in shots on goal – and then things got cranked up.

Tampa Bay’s Steven Stamkos just missed his first goal of the series, hitting the crossbar with a slapshot just under seven minutes into the game.

Moments later, Matthew Carle almost directed the puck into the net for Tampa Bay, only to be stopped by Corey Crawford’s right pad. The Lightning then killed off a Chicago power play with Ben Bishop stopping Tuevo Teravainen point blank with his right skate after a pass from Marian Hossa.

Chicago’s Patrick Kane almost had another assist, sliding the goal across the crease to fellow star Jonathan Toews, who seemed to lose an edge and had his stick almost completely on the ice in an effort to direct the puck in. Bishop made the save.

The tight start was hardly a surprise considering this has been one of the closest Stanley Cup finals. All five games have been decided by one goal, and at no point has either team led by more than one in his series.

The busy first period was filled with hits, too, but was mostly full of missed opportunities. The Lightning managed just four shots against Crawford in the first 20 minutes, though they had quality chances and Hossa may have saved a goal blocking a slapshot late in the period. Chicago failed to cash in on two power plays, dropping them to 2 for 15 for the series. Tampa Bay is 1 for 12 on the power play.

—

6:30 p.m.

This has been one unbelievably close Stanley Cup Final.

Neither team has enjoyed a two-goal lead through five games for the first time in the history of the series. It is only the second final to begin with five one-goal games, joining Toronto’s 4-1 win over Montreal in 1951.

Each team has 136 shots. The team with the most shots on goal has lost each game. The Blackhawks have blocked 78 shots, compared to 76 for the Lightning. The Blackhawks have scored 11 goals and Tampa Bay has scored 10.

A few more nuggets:

– The Blackhawks are 8-2 at home in the playoffs, and they are 11-1 when scoring first in the postseason.

– Since 2009, Chicago is 41-14 in Games 4 through 7, 12-1 in Game 6s and 15-4 in potential series-clinching games.

– The Blackhawks’ Corey Crawford needs one win to tie Tony Esposito for the franchise lead with 45 postseason victories.

– Chicago’s Patrick Kane and Tampa Bay’s Steven Stamkos have each been limited to one assist without a goal in this series.

– If they force a Game 7, the Lightning will become the first team to play 27 games in a single Stanley Cup playoff.

– The Lightning are 3-0 when facing elimination in this postseason.

—

6:11 p.m.

The family of Stan Mikita says the Chicago Blackhawks Hall of Famer no longer has memories of his exceptional career on the ice because of a progressive brain disorder. Jill Mikita tells the Chicago Tribune (http://trib.in/1BdOCqo ) her husband ”has no idea” he’s missing out on the Hawks’ third Stanley Cup Final series in six seasons.

The 75-year-old Mikita has suspected Lewy body dementia. It’s a progressive disease that causes problems with thinking, movement and behavior. There’s no known cure, but people can live with the disease for a number of years.

Mikita played his entire 22-year NHL career for the Blackhawks, from 1958 to 1980. He was on the team that won the Stanley Cup in 1961 and amassed 541 goals and 926 assists in 1,394 games.

—

5:45 p.m.

A tornado warning was issued in the Chicago area less than two hours before Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final between the Blackhawks and the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Heavy rain drenched thousands of fans streaming to the arena along Madison Street as storm sirens blared. The warning expired at 5:15 p.m. and there were no reports of any touchdowns.

It was calm inside: Members of the Blackhawks were kicking around a soccer ball in the bowels of the arena as usual to keep the mood light before they had a chance to clinch the NHL championship at home for the first time since 1938.

—

4:55 p.m.

Blackhawks defenseman Kimmo Timonen acknowledged it is tempting to let his mind drift, with his 16-year career winding down and his first Stanley Cup in reach.

”It is a mental struggle,” he said before Game 6. ”You just have to do mental work. … You go for a walk, you watch a movie, that kind of stuff. You listen to music, whatever makes you get your mind off it. It is a mental struggle. But you still have to, every hour, say to yourself, `Stop it.’ There’s a game and it’s a big game and we haven’t won (anything) tonight.”

Chicago acquired Timonen from the Flyers in February. But he missed much of the season recovering from blood clots in his leg and lungs.

Timonen debuted with Nashville in the 1998-99 season and was traded to Philadelphia in 2007. He spent seven years with the Flyers and was on the ice in 2010 when Patrick Kane scored the Stanley Cup-clinching goal in overtime in Game 6.

”I haven’t thought about it now, but when I got here three months ago, we would talk about it,” Timonen said. ”The guys were saying stuff to me about it. But it’s over now. It was five years ago. It was a tough memory, but hopefully, it will be different this time.”

—

12:41 p.m.

Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper continues to be treated well in Chicago.

Cooper, friends with Cubs manager Joe Maddon, had sweet seats near Chicago’s dugout Sunday night at Wrigley Field.

”All I’m going to say is it’s the first pro sporting event that I’ve been to for a long time that I could just sit there, relax, not have a stake in it,” Cooper said. ”That was good for my head.”

NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley picked up the tab for Cooper, his assistants and the front office staff at Chicago Cut Steakhouse last week, and actor Vince Vaughn did the same two days later.

Maddon managed the Tampa Bay Rays the past nine seasons.

—

12:30 p.m.

Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper shot down the idea that the Lightning were approaching this as just another game – not with the season at stake.

”The Stanley Cup’s in the building,” Cooper said. ”I can’t believe they would say, oh, it’s just another game. We know it’s just not another game. We haven’t treated those elimination games like that. This is much different than Game 1. You got to win or you go home. On the other side you know what happens if they win. No. I don’t like to sugarcoat anything. This is the reality of the business we’re in. We need to rise to the occasion.”

The post The Latest: Near misses, 0-0 as Chicago, Tampa play Game 6 appeared first on IdealCapper.

Bishop’s blunder ended up in his net when he collided with defenseman Victor Hedman and sent the puck to Patrick Sharp, who scored the Blackhawks’ first goal in a 2-1 victory.

Crawford gave the puck away to Nikita Kucherov moments earlier, but his blunder didn’t cost him – and Kucherov even got injured on the play.

The differences between the Blackhawks and the Lightning are so minuscule in this historically close Final that one mistake, one false stride, one flicker of fate has decided things. Chicago took advantage of one fewer mistake and took a 3-2 series lead on a 90-degree night in Tampa.

The Blackhawks won more than a game: If they get one more stroke of fate on their side, they’ll get to raise the Stanley Cup on their home ice Monday night.

”I think everyone is pretty excited about it,” Crawford said. ”But we can’t get ahead of ourselves. There’s a lot of work to do here, and it’s going to be an even harder battle.”

Here are some things to contemplate while the series shifts to the United Center:

HAWKS AT HOME: Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Duncan Keith and the incumbent core of the Blackhawks’ last two championship teams raised the Stanley Cup on road ice in 2010 and again in 2013. They’ve got the chance to do it at home this time in front of the famously boisterous Chicago fans. A home clincher is particularly wonderful when that silvery trophy is involved, but only the Los Angeles Kings have experienced it since 2007.

ONE-GOAL GAMES: The first five games in the Final have been decided by one goal, the first time that’s happened in the NHL’s final series since 1951, when Montreal and Toronto did it. Neither team has led by more than one goal at any point in the series’ 300 minutes. The tension of those stakes has translated into heavy playing time for the Blackhawks’ top defensemen. Tampa Bay has spread out its minutes more equitably, but Victor Hedman still played 23:38 in Game 5. Keith has been tireless for most of the past two rounds, but he appears to be slowing ever so slightly.

CONFIDENT LIGHTNING: Much has been made of Tampa Bay’s inexperience on hockey’s biggest platform, but coach Jon Cooper and his players are confident they can force a seventh game, which would be their third of these playoffs. In addition to being 8-4 on the road, compared to 6-7 at home, the Lightning wiped out a 3-2 deficit to eliminate Detroit in the first round and also won Game 7 at Madison Square Garden against the New York Rangers in the Eastern Conference finals.

”I’ve probably overused this line during the playoffs, but I guess we’ve gone from an inexperienced playoff team to an experienced playoff team, and we’ve been in this position before just a month and a half ago,” Cooper said.

Four of the past seven times the Stanley Cup has been tied 2-2, the team losing Game 5 has rebounded to win the championship, including the 2004 Lightning.

STARS STILL STRUGGLING: Kane still doesn’t have a goal in the Stanley Cup Final. Toews still has just one goal. Tampa Bay captain Steven Stamkos has no goals in seven games. Playoff scoring leader Tyler Johnson has one goal in nine games. There’s still time for the best offensive players on either team to seize a game for themselves, but that time is running short.

KUCHEROV’S STATUS: If Kucherov, part of the high-scoring ”Triplets” line that also features Johnson and Ondrej Palat, can’t play in Game 6, someone will need to step up to fill the void. Rookie Jonathan Drouin filled in for long stretches Saturday night, and Cooper even tried pairing Stamkos with Johnson and Palat for a while.

Kucherov has 10 goals and 22 points in 25 playoff games.

”It’s always tough. He’s a big part of our team and a big part of that one line we have there,” defensman Anton Stralman said. ”But, it shouldn’t hurt us too much. … We have a deep team. We have guys that can step in and make plays.”

The post Smallest margins put Blackhawks on brink of Cup in Game 6 appeared first on IdealCapper.

They came up short against a supposedly ailing Ben Bishop and lost 3-2 to the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup finals on a late goal by Cedric Paquette on Monday night.

Chicago outshot the Lightning 38-32, but couldn’t solve Bishop. And just when the United Center crowd was getting ready for overtime, Paquette netted the game-winner on a beautiful pass from defenseman Victor Hedman at 16:49.

The Blackhawks trail 2-1 in the series and will once again have to rely on the resolve that has carried them to two Stanley Cups since 2010 after they let a game that seemed to be theirs for the taking slip away.

They were playing at home after splitting the first two games on the road and facing a goalie who looked like he could barely move in Bishop. A 19-7 edge in shots in the first period resulted in only one goal and Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane have now gone three games without playing a major role in the final. Game 4 is at the United Center on Wednesday.

The Blackhawks took a 2-1 lead at 4:14 of the third period when Brandon Saad fired in a one-timer from the slot off a pass from Marian Hossa in the left point for his seventh goal of the postseason.

But Tampa Bay’s Ondrej Palat tied it 13 seconds later when he knocked a loose puck past Chicago goalie Corey Crawford’s glove.

The big question coming in was whether Bishop would be in goal for the Lightning after he left Game 2 in the third period, returned for a brief stretch and exited for good.

Tampa Bay was tight-lipped about his ailment. The Lightning even had third-string goalie Kristers Gudlevskis ride the bus to the arena. But Bishop, Tampa Bay’s single-season victories record-holder, was in the lineup instead of Andrei Vasilevskiy.

He seemed to be struggling to move in net and found himself face down on the ice after Saad got pushed into him and hit him in the face with his left hand late in the second period.

In the end, he was up to the task.

The post Chicago can’t cash in chances, trail Stanley Cup Final 2-1 appeared first on IdealCapper.

Who could blame him?

Derick Brassard had a hat trick and Henrik Lundqvist stopped 36 shots in another season-saving performance as the New York Rangers beat the Lightning 7-3 Tuesday night to force Game 7.

”I think both the team’s will go out there and try to play their game,” Bishop said about Game 7. ”They’re a good team. That’s why they won the Presidents’ Trophy.”

Brassard also had two assists for the Rangers, who evened the series 3-3 after being shut out in Game 5 at home. Keith Yandle, James Sheppard and J.T. Miller also scored on Bishop, who was pulled with New York leading 5-1 with just under 13 minutes remaining. Rick Nash added a power-play goal against Andrei Vasilevskiy and Brassard had an empty-netter with 1:41 to go to complete his hat trick.

”The third period we weren’t ourselves,” Lightning captain Steven Stamkos said. ”No excuses for the third. We’re not going to sit here and sulk and feel sorry for ourselves. We have to win a game on the road to get to the Cup finals. We’re confident with our ability to win on the road.”

The decisive game is Friday night in New York, where Tampa Bay has won twice in this series.

”You want to finish it out when you can,” Lightning right wing Ryan Callahan said. ”You move past it. You have another opportunity. So we have to win one on the road.”

Lundqvist was outstanding before giving up a pair of third-period goals to Nikita Kucherov. New York improved to 4-0 in elimination games this postseason, and Lundqvist is 9-1 with his team’s season on the line since the start of last year’s playoffs.

”We capitalized early on our chances, and after that our goaltender was asked to make some big saves, which he did. But in the third period, with our season on the line, we probably played our best period of this series so far,” Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said. ”We wanted a chance and we got a chance.”

Brassard got the Rangers off to a strong start with his first goal at 3:36 of the first period. He scored again at 7:14 of the third, chasing Bishop and finishing a stretch in which New York scored three times in just over four minutes to break the game open.

Nash finished with a goal and three assists. Yandle had a goal and an assist, and Miller finished with his first goal in 22 career playoffs games, plus three assists.

Callahan scored for Tampa Bay in the first period, but the Rangers did a good job of limiting opportunities for Stamkos, who only got off two shots after scoring in four consecutive games.

Stamkos had a goal and an assist, Bishop had 26 saves and the Lightning killed four penalties to take Game 5 in New York. Lundqvist played well enough in that game for the Rangers to win on most nights, however the inability to take advantage of power-play opportunities was the difference in the outcome.

Brassard scored on New York’s first shot of this game and Yandle’s second goal of the playoffs made it 2-0 at 15:30. That came less than a minute after the Rangers killed off a penalty with help from Lundqvist, who made a nice pad stop on Stamkos to deny the Lightning star from point-blank range.

Two former Rangers figured in the Lightning trimming the deficit to 2-1, with Callahan – traded to Tampa Bay in exchange for Martin St. Louis last season – skating in alone on Lundqvist after taking a pass from Anton Stralman, who left New York as a free agent last summer.

Callahan, playing in the conference finals after undergoing an emergency appendectomy that sidelined him for two games in the second round, flicked a well-placed shot into the left side of the net to get the Lightning, as well as a sellout crowd of 19,204, back in the game.

NOTES: Bishop was credited with his second assist of the playoffs on Callahan’s goal. … Stamkos was the first player with a goal in four straight games of a playoff series against the Rangers since Mario Lemieux scored in all five games of the 1996 conference semifinals. The four-game streak also tied a Lightning playoff record set by Martin St. Louis in and matched by Vincent Lecavalier in 2007. … Lightning C Cedric Paquette sat out with an undisclosed injury. … Tampa Bay C Valtteri Filppula was a minus-4.

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They again find themselves on the brink of elimination after Steven Stamkos set up Valtteri Filppula’s go-ahead goal and scored another as the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Rangers 2-0 on Sunday night in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals.

Ben Bishop, who gave up 10 goals in the previous two games, had 26 saves in posting his second shutout and getting Tampa Bay within a victory of reaching the Stanley Cup finals for the second time in franchise history. They won the Cup in 2004.

The Rangers have wiggled out of this spot before. They trailed the Washington Capitals 3-1 in the conference semifinals and rallied. They also overcame a 3-1 deficit last year against Pittsburgh.

Game 6 is Tuesday night in Florida.

”We have to beat them to four games,” Rangers center Derek Stepan said. ”We have to go into their building, and find a way to get it done.”

The Rangers will need more from their power play.

Tampa Bay killed off four New York power plays in clinical fashion in the opening 31 minutes of a scoreless game, allowing only four shots.

The Rangers failure to cash those man advantages turned the tide in the Lightning’s favor as Stamkos added a power-play goal after Filppula opened the scoring.

”Our execution was a bit slow tonight on the power play,” Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said. ”Because it was slow, it made it easier for them to defend. We didn’t get many looks on it, and obviously that was a big part of tonight’s game.”

This was a game the Rangers controlled early. The power plays gave them a chance to put Tampa Bay down and they failed to convert, which was surprising because New York had two power-play goals in each of the three previous games in the series.

”They did a good job blocking shots tonight but you know we have to do a better job with those power plays,” Rangers captain Ryan McDonagh said.

A little less than 2 minutes after the Lightning killed off a tripping penalty to Andrej Sustr, the Lightning took the lead and the excitement out of the Madison Square Garden crowd.

Defenseman Anton Stralman sent a great bank pass up the side boards to Stamkos. He carried the puck into the Rangers’ zone, found Filppula coming down the middle and the center beat Henrik Lundqvist with a shot to the upper part of the net. It was his third goal of the postseason and probably his most important.

The Lightning had withstood the Rangers’ push and they were in control.

”The penalty killing came up huge,” Bishop said. ”Obviously, we weren’t very happy with the last few games. That really kept us in it.”

After Marc Staal picked up his second penalty of the game, the Lightning needed just over a minute to double the lead. It came on a tic-tac-toe goal by Stamkos, his fourth in the last four games.

Nikita Kucherov sent the puck from the right circle to Ondrej Palat in the left circle. He quickly sent a cross-ice pass to Stamkos in front and the Lightning captain redirected the puck past a helpless Lundqvist, who finished with 20 saves.

New York pushed to get back in the game in the third, but Bishop stood tall when challenged shots by J.T. Miller and Derick Brassard.

Stamkos’ four-game goal streak matches the Lightning playoff record set by Martin St. Louis in 2003 and also accomplished by Vincent Lecavalier in 2007.

After a couple of wide-open games in Florida, the first period of Game 5 was much more a Rangers’ style game. They kept the play in the Lightning zone, drew two penalties and held a 6-4 edge in shots.

Tyler Johnson had the best chance for the Lightning early after a Ryan McDonagh turnover, but he missed the net. Chris Kreider missed the top corner of the net on the Rangers’ first power play.

Having taken the 3-2 series lead, the Lightning now have two chances to win one game–and a ticket to the Stanley Cup finals.

”The toughest one to win is the fourth one,” Stamkos said. ”Especially this time of year, when it is to go to the Finals.”

NOTES: Long-time Garden voice John Amirante sang the national anthem. He sang in Game 2 in the opening round in what was said to be his last appearance. … D Matt Carle returned to the Lightning lineup after missing Game 4 with an undisclosed injury. … The Rangers have allowed two or fewer goals in 13 of 17 postseason games this season.

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