Tag: Ondrej Palat

Ondrej Palat’s clutch late goal in Game 5 helps the Lightning stave off Stanley Cup Final elimination

Heroics from Ondrej Palat keep the Lightning alive for another day!

Ondrej Palat has a habit of scoring big-time goals for the Tampa Bay Lightning and there was no bigger than his third period tally in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final.

On Friday, the Lightning were facing down elimination against the Colorado Avalanche, who held a 3-1 lead in the Stanley Cup Final headed back into their home rink. After the big blowouts and controversial endings, Game 5 of the 2022 Stanley Cup Final was a more back-and-forth affair, with the Lightning holding 1-0 and 2-1 leads before the Avalanche fought back to tie the game each time.

However, tied 2-2 with under six and a half minutes remaining, Palat scored the biggest goal of his career past Darcy Kuemper to give the Lightning the lead once more.

Palat was left wide open in front of the net by Colorado’s defense and was able to sneak that shot through Kuemper for the 3-2 game winner. Talk about taking advantage of a soft Avalanche defensive coverage and Kuemper’s inability to keep his pads on that puck.

Thanks to Palat’s clutch tally, the Lightning live to see another day as the series swings back to Tampa Bay on Sunday with the Avalanche leading 3-2. The Lightning still have to win two more games to threepeat as Stanley Cup champions, but their road got just a bit easier thanks to Palat’s heroics.

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Ondrej Palat’s gorgeous goal in Game 3 gave the Lightning its first lead of the Stanley Cup Final

The back-to-back Stanley Cup champs are back in business!

It took over 130 minutes of hockey in the Stanley Cup Final for the Tampa Bay Lightning to take a lead.

The back-to-back Stanley Cup champions came into Monday night’s Game 3 against the Colorado Avalanche staring down a 2-0 series deficit and looking for a spark. After the Avalanche scored an early goal, the Lightning battled back to take a 2-1 lead — their first of the entire series — on Ondrej Palat’s perfect shot.

On the counterattack, Palat dropped a pass to Steven Stamkos in the offensive zone, then the Lightning captain feathered a pass back across the ice to the waiting goal scorer. The Avalanche were so preoccupied with Stamkos that they left Palat wide open in front of the net, who went top shelf on Darcy Kuemper for the 2-1 lead.

What a gorgeous sequence of passes from that Lightning line, confusing the Avalanche and capitalizing with their incredible skill. That is the kind of play back-to-back Stanley Cup champions make!

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Conn Smythe tracker after Stanley Cup Final Game 1: Cale Makar is NHL’s next great D-man

We could be looking at the NHL’s next special blueliner.

Every great NHL team has two common characteristics: at least one great No. 1 center and at least one great No. 1 defenseman.

The Colorado Avalanche are in the Stanley Cup Final against the two-time defending champs in the Lightning (-1.5), so it’s obvious they’re pretty good. But they wouldn’t be here, and they wouldn’t be three wins away from the franchise’s first Cup in more than two decades if it weren’t for their top center Nathan MacKinnon and top defenseman Cale Makar.

As we get set for the rest of this potential barnburner of a series, it’s these two superstars who lead the way for the NHL’s top postseason honor: The Conn Smythe Trophy.

But before this series gets really heated, who else is in line for the prestigious award? Let’s dive in!

Lightning’s Ondrej Palat scored wild last-minute game-winner to stun the Rangers in Game 3

Never count out the Lightning!

You can never count out the Tampa Bay Lightning. Ever.

On Sunday, Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Final between the New York Rangers and Lightning was looking rough for the back-to-back Stanley Cup champions. Midway through the second period, the Rangers took a 2-0 lead on the Lightning, putting Tampa Bay in a precarious position with the team already down 2-0 in the series.

And yet, the Lightning stormed back, cutting the lead in half in the second then tying the game less than two minutes into the third. The big moment, however, came when Ondrej Palat scored to make it 3-2 Lightning with less than 42 seconds left in the game!

What a goal! Not only that, look at Nikita Kucherov’s brilliant assist on the game-winner to Palat.

That’s absolutely cold blooded. But, given that the Lightning are reigning Stanley Cup champions twice over, there was no way they were going down without a fight.

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