Series between the Florida Panthers and Tampa The Bay Lightning is one of the main teams in the entire first round of the National Hockey League playoffs. It's not even a matter of principled opposition between teams from the same state. This battle brought together some of the best and most productive players of the entire season, among whom the main scorer of the regular season, Nikita Kucherov, naturally stands out, as well as perhaps the brightest goalkeepers of recent generations.
Sergei Bobrovsky versus Andrei Vasilevsky — it was their duel that truly headlined the new confrontation between Florida and Tampa in the playoffs. Both Russian goalies spent the championship differently, but approached the Stanley Cup in excellent shape, which they loudly announced from the very first match, making more than 40 saves between them. Bobrovsky’s club still won that game, and Sergei himself literally stood on his ears in the last minutes of the meeting, reflecting the most dangerous shots from Tampa’s star forwards. Further — more.
The second game in the series became a real action movie. By the 16th minute of the meeting, Florida was leading 2-0 thanks to goals from Sam Bennett and Vladimir Tarasenko, who scored his 45th career goal in the NHL playoffs. However, in just a few minutes in the second period, the Lightning, with the help of Nikita Kucherov, won back the gap and were close to turning the tide of the match and taking the lead. Bobrovsky did not allow this.
At the end of the period, Florida's Russian goalkeeper made the main save of the entire playoffs. And perhaps even a year. Tampa's Matt Dumba was already shooting at what seemed like an empty goal, his chance should have ended with a goal. However, Bobrovsky, in an incredible way and jumping with his back to the court, managed to hit the puck with his left hand.
- «Place this in the Louvre!» — this is how the NHL media service reacted to Bobrovsky’s save, publishing X frame of the episode on the social network.
- “I don’t think you can play like this on an Xbox console. Let alone in real life,” said NHL website author Mike Morrial.
- “This is a save of the entire playoffs “My God, what a period Bob played. “Tampa should have led 4:2,” said Paul Bissonnette, a former player of several NHL clubs, now the author of the famous podcast Spittin' Chiclets.
Andrei Vasilevsky did not lag behind his counterpart and also replenished his collection of bright saves, saving Tampa over and over again and repelling many attacks from the powerful attack of the Panthers. Particularly offensive for Florida was the save by the Russian Lightning goalkeeper after a shot by Matthew Tkachuk. After his shot, the American already saw the puck in the goal, but the projectile ended up in Vasilevsky’s trap.
“»Bobrovsky — Vasilevsky — this is a CINEMA!» — the famous journalist Mark Lazerus spoke briefly and clearly.
It is not surprising that it was Bob and Vasya who eventually became one of the three stars of the match. And they might have shared the first place if not for Carter Verhaeghe. The Florida forward scored the winning goal in overtime and allowed the Panthers to increase their lead in the series (2-0).
Now the confrontation moves to Tampa, where the Lightning must do everything possible to save situations. This means that the workload for goalkeepers (especially Bobrovsky) will increase significantly. If the duel between two star Russians who won the Vezina is already at a cosmic level, then it’s scary to imagine what it will be like in the next two games.
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