GREENBURGH, N.Y. — It’s one game for a trip to the Stanley Cup finals and the chance to play for hockey’s biggest prize.
That’s what the Tampa Bay Lightning and New York Rangers face Friday night at Madison Square Garden in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals.
The Rangers had the NHL’s best regular-season record, a 42-goal scorer in Rick Nash, a shutdown defensive duo of Ryan McDonagh and Dan Girardi, and the experience of having been to the finals just a year ago.
The difference maker also belongs to the Rangers: goaltender Henrik Lundqvist. No one is better in Game 7s than the Swede.
Lundqvist has won his last six Game 7s, posting a 0.81 goals- against average, a .973 save percentage and one shutout.
“I don’t know if I’m comfortable,” Lundqvist said after practice Thursday at the Rangers’ Westchester facility. “I just try to go out and do my job.”
Tampa Bay goalie Ben Bishop, the former UMaine player, comes into the game somewhat as a question mark. He has given up 15 goals in the three games in Tampa, Florida. However, he posted a 2-0 shutout in the last game at the Garden on Sunday.
“Just another game. You don’t change anything,” Bishop said Thursday before the Lightning left for New York. “You prepare the same way. You do the same things you’ve been doing all year since training camp. Obviously it has a little more meaning to it but you can’t look at it like that.”
The Lightning have won two of the three games in New York, and Bishop has given up just four goals in the three games there.
SABRES: A week after losing out on Mike Babcock, Buffalo went with another Stanley Cup winner by hiring Dan Bylsma as coach.
The hiring, announced Thursday, was delayed briefly after the Sabres were required to compensate the Penguins for hiring Bylsma because he was still under contract with Pittsburgh after being relieved of his duties a year ago. The Sabres were expected to send the Penguins a future draft pick.
CAPITALS: Center Nicklas Backstrom had arthroscopic hip surgery Wednesday, and the team expects him to be ready for next season.
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