2. McELHINNEY IS ONE TOUGH CUSTOMER
Early in the third period with the Lightning still owning a 3-2 lead, Colorado's J.T. Compher went hard to the net in search of the game-tying goal. He cut in toward the crease and bowled over Lightning goaltender Curtis McElhinney, flipping over McElhinney and sparking a massive melee against the boards as the Lightning were rightfully upset at Compher for running over their goalie. At one point, Mikhail Sergachev was dragging Compher along the ice while an official held onto Compher to prevent Sergachev from getting to him.
Meanwhile, McElhinney was lying face down on the ice and not moving much at all. Lightning head athletic trainer Tom Mulligan raced out to attend to him. At that point, it seemed McElhinney would have to exit the game and the Lightning would have to bring in Andrei Vasilevskiy off the bench.
Eventually, however, McElhinney rose to his feet. He skated around in his crease for a bit, chatted with Mulligan and stayed in the game. No one would have blamed McElhinney for exiting. The hit from Compher looked severe.
But McElhinney wasn't about to leave this one.
"I'm fine. Honestly, I was tied up, like my arms were kind of folded up under me," McElhinney said after the game. "It wasn't a hit to the head or anything. It's a good hockey play. I like it when guys try to get to the net. I liked the response from our team standing up for me. It's nice to see. It's a hard hockey play."
McElhinney's ability to stay in the game would prove beneficial for the Lightning, especially in overtime.
During the extra session, Samuel Girard had a good look at the net on a rebound opportunity, but McElhinney stretched his left leg out far to keep it out. A couple seconds later, McElhinney made another point-blank save on Girard, setting Kucherov up for his game-winner.
"I liked the way that we hung in there," McElhinney said. "The penalty kill at the end there and then obviously in overtime, it comes down to a key save here and there and a big-time play from one of our key players."
McElhinney picked up three victories on the Lightning's 11-game win streak.
"It's been pretty surreal this run that we've been on here the last couple months," McElhinney said. "This 11-game run has been a lot of fun. It's special. It just kind of seems like we're going about our business right now, it's not really so much about the streak."