TORONTO | “I was counting in my head: three, two, shot. No, I wasn’t counting. I had no idea. I knew there were still seconds left when I received the puck. I was even looking to see if Kuch (Kucherov) could break free, but I took a shot. »
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Victor Hedman humorously described his goal at the very end of the first period. He was aware that the seconds were ticking away, but he didn’t realize there was so little time left.
He beat Jack Campbell at 19:57 in the first period. With this goal, the Lightning began to breathe easier. We saw this champion team of 2020 and 2021.
“We were skating well, we played better,” winger Corey Perry said. We knew what we had to do to come back. We played our game. We finally scored goals. We don’t want to give a penalty kill again. But a victory is a victory. We were more desperate. We have battled. »
“We weren’t happy with our first meeting,” said Hedman, who shared a small table with Perry in a tiny locker room at Scotiabank Arena. We didn’t have a good taste in our mouths after the 5-0 loss. We looked at what we had done on the eighth note. We knew we were to bounce back. »
15 to 0
Great teams have character. They never give up. Since the 2020 playoffs, the Lightning now have a record of 15 wins and 0 losses in meetings following a loss.
“We feel targeted,” Hedman said. We don’t like to lose. But we also have the best goalkeeper in Vasi (Andrei Vasilevskiy). He made some big saves for us again in this game.”
The big names
Sheldon Keefe had nothing of a coach débiné after the defeat of his.
“We are playing against a very good team, we expected a very difficult series. The penalties hurt in this second game. The Lightning scored three power-play goals. It’s way too much. »
Keefe also had good words for Victor Hedman.
“Hedman is a world-class player, he’s one of the best defensemen in the NHL,” he said. But he’s not the only big name in the Lightning. They have a very good goalkeeper, a very good coach and good attackers. They have dominant players at all positions. Kucherov also played very well. But we also have very good players. This series is interesting. »
Jon Cooper had made a change for this game by trusting Zach Bogosian on the blue line in place of Jan Rutta.