Tag: Ross Colton

Lightning’s Ross Colton scores last-second game-winner to stun the Panthers in Game 2

OH MY GOD!

This is a real gut-punch for the Florida Panthers.

With the Tampa Bay Lightning leading their second round Stanley Cup playoff series against the Panthers 1-0 coming into Thursday’s game, Florida needed to do something in Game 2 before the series swung back to their rival’s home rink. For nearly 60 minutes, the Panthers played the Lightning hard, and the score sat at 1-1 with seconds remaining until a possible overtime period to decide the winner.

That was until Ross Colton was left wide open in front of the Panthers net with four seconds remaining in the third period. In a complete defensive collapse, the Panthers allowed the Lightning to capitalize on Nikita Kucherov’s backwards pass to Colton, who buried the shot top shelf for the 2-1 game winner.

Talk about an absolute heartbreaker right there. What should have been a 1-1 game headed to overtime to decide the winner became a 2-1 victory for the Lightning after a horrible defensive miscue. And seriously, it was a bad one.

Yeah, there’s no way you can leave Colton — who scored the game-winning goal for the Lightning in last year’s Stanley Cup Final! — that wide open with seconds remaining in the third.

Instead of having a chance to win the game in overtime, the Panthers are now down 2-0 in the series with the games shifting to Tampa Bay for the next two bouts. If the Panthers ultimately lose this series, and it’s not looking great right now, come back to this moment as the one where everything changed.

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Maple Leafs’ Kyle Clifford was ejected 10 minutes into Game 1 of the playoffs after this brutal hit

This was so unnecessary from Clifford.

This is certainly not the start to the playoffs Kyle Clifford would have wanted.

During Monday’s Game 1 of the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Tampa Bay Lightning, Clifford was given a game misconduct and was ejected for an absolutely brutal hit on Ross Colton. Less than 10 minutes into the game, Clifford plastered Colton on the boards from behind with an elbow that immediately drew the referees’ attention.

It didn’t take long for the referees to tag Clifford with a boarding call and a game misconduct, ejecting him from the game and putting the Lightning on a five minute major.

Yeah that’s… not great from Clifford! Here’s another angle that shows just how brutal it was.

That was one hundred percent unnecessary from Clifford, as the puck was gone from Colton’s stick before he even got there. It remains to be seen if Clifford will earn a hearing from the Department of Player Safety for this one.

Thankfully for the Maple Leafs, the team survived the five-minute major and ended up taking a 1-0 lead on the Lightning at the end of the first period.

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Watch rookie Ross Colton score the Stanley Cup-winning goal for the Lightning

The golden goal for Ross Colton!

Ross Colton has officially scored the most important goal of his short NHL career. A Stanley Cup winning goal, to be precise.

The Tampa Bay Lightning are the 2021 Stanley Cup champions! On Wednesday, the Lightning hoisted the Stanley Cup for the second year in a row after besting the Montreal Canadiens 1-0 in Game 5.

How did they achieve victory? Off the back of Colton’s late second period tally that gave the Lightning the lead, one which Tampa Bay never relinquished. After a great Tampa Bay keep in from a pileup in the Montreal zone, David Savard found Colton parked in front of the net for a smooth tap in and the 1-0 lead.

Here’s how it went down.

What a pass from Savard to kickstart the play and what incredible positioning from Colton to stick himself in the perfect spot for the tap in tally.

Though the Lightning had to play one more period of hockey before being awarded the Stanley Cup, it was a victory worth savoring.

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