Saturday, 3 a.m.
How impressive was the comeback by the Tampa Bay Lightning Friday night?
Was it enough to erase your doubts? Was it enough to restore your faith? Was it enough allow you to dream of a third straight Stanley Cup championship?
The Bolts, who play Toronto in the first round of the post-season, which begins Monday night, overcame a sloppy second period to finish the regular season with a 6-4 victory over the New York Islanders.
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It was yet another strong game for Steven Stamkos, who has been on a run as of late. He had his 10th career hat trick and finished with 105 points on the season. He had 42 goals.
So how did the Bucs manage to come back from a 3-1 deficit?
"We beat the goalie," said Lightning coach Jon Cooper. "I thought we shot a lot more. We directed pucks to the net. And we had Stevens Stamkos on our side.
"What a run he went on. Probably three weeks ago, if you said he was going to get 40 (goals) and 100 points, I don’t know if people would have bet on that. But good for him. He's had a hell of year."
In his final nine games, Stamkos had 10 goals and 16 assists.
“It’s nice," Stamkos said. "Anytime you can finish the season on a high... We talked about going out and just playing a good third period and trying to gain some momentum heading into the playoffs. That was a good response by our group. It's always nice to feel good going into the fun part of the season."
Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 33 of 37 shots. He earned his 39th win, tying him for the league lead. It was the fifth straight year Vasi has had a share of the league lead in victories.