Draft With Us

Mr. Garrison Scores Game Winning Goal

Posted By: Lisa Donovan on 6/7/2015

Tampa Bay scored the first goal of the game to lead 1-0 when Cedric Paquette put the Lightning up 1-0. Victor Hedman recorded his 10th assist of the 2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The second period was a Series Of Unfortunate Events for both goaltenders. Chicago made things hectic for Tampa Bay when Andrew Shaw tied it before Teuvo Teravainen scored on a power play to put Chicago up 2-1.

Nikita Kucherov tied it for the Tampa Bay Lightning at 2 before Tyler Johnson gave the Lightning a 3-2 lead. Tampa Bay was in this exact situation before in Game 1. In Game 1 the Lightning were playing not to lose rather than playing to win.

That wasn't the case on Saturday. Sure Chicago tied it at 3 in the third period when Brent Seabrook scored. In the end, it was Jason Garrison who finally did something with the puck on the power play after receiving the puck from Victor Hedman. Some teams get greedy and put four forwards and one defenseman on the ice. Tampa Bay stuck with their Tampa 2 in the NHL when they kept two defensemen on the ice. Both Hedman and Garrison helped the Lightning gain a 4-3 lead.

Goaltender Ben Bishop got injured late in the third period. Andrei Vasilevski, one of Tampa Bay's two first round picks in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft stepped in and did an awesome job filling in for Ben Bishop.

Bishop has an expiring contract. If Vasilevski has to start the rest of this series, and manages to lead Tampa Bay to a Stanley Cup it will spark a huge controversy. I'm gonna get a lot of heat for this, but I'd keep Vasilevski. Anaheim got rid of Jonas Hiller believing either Frederik Andersen or Jonas Hiller would step up. That happened and Anaheim looks real smart now.

Jason Garrison may have saved his job on the Lightning with that game winning goal. He was awful during the entire NHL Playoffs leading up to tonight. Slater Koekkoek, the Lightning's other 2012 first round pick could come up as a replacement to one of the defenseman on the Lightning that will be in Free Agency after this season since he was a top 10 draft pick.

Tampa Bay heads back to Chicago with the series tied at 1-1. Will see what the Lightning do from this point forward. Whoever wins game 3 on Monday will probably win this series.

Links to other NHL Teams

Atlantic Division


Boston Bruins	Buffalo Sabres	Detroit Red Wings	Florida Panthers	Montreal Canadiens	Ottawa Senators	Tampa Bay Lightning	Toronto Maple Leafs

Metropolitan Division


Carolina Hurricanes	Columbus Blue Jackets	New Jersey Devils	New York Islanders	New York Rangers	Philadelphia Flyers	Pittsburgh Penguins	Washington Capitals