Tampa Bay's perfect close-out record put to test tonight

The Tampa Bay Lightning have been unbeatable during their current playoff run when given the opportunity to end a series.
In the First Round against New Jersey, the Lightning won Game 4 on the road to set up a clinching Game 5 at AMALIE Arena and responded with a superlative defensive effort in a 3-1 victory.
In the Second Round versus Boston, the Bolts continued their string of consecutive wins against the Bruins, winning their fourth straight in Game 5 to close out the Bruins, again at home, again by a 3-1 count.
But tonight's Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Final against the Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena with a chance to go to the Stanley Cup Final on the line will be the Lightning's most difficult clinching scenario yet.

Not only are the Lightning expecting the best effort of the series from the Capitals, the Caps will have the benefit of playing on home ice in front of their fans.

"I think it's all about preparation and commitment to playing the way we want to play," said Tampa Bay defenseman Anton Stralman, who has recorded a point in three of the five Eastern Conference Final games. "It seems like when we get put on the line like that and we have a chance to end it, we usually have a pretty good effort. With that said, we know we're facing a difficult opponent and I'm sure they're going to be super excited about this one playing on home ice and everything. We have to be prepared."
The Lightning are a playoff veteran group with plenty of experience closing teams out. In four of their last five playoff series, with an opportunity to end a series and move on, they've capitalized on the first try. They've also dealt with the other side, of being in a position to end a series and not taking advantage, the most recent example coming the last time they were in the Eastern Conference Final in 2016 when they held a 3-2 series lead over Pittsburgh with a chance to close out the Penguins on home ice but were beaten in both Games 6 and 7, missing out on an opportunity to go to back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals.
"I just know the importance -- and I know our guys do -- of when you get the chance to close them out, close them out," Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. "Because you're just adding momentum to a team that, you just keep throwing them lifelines (when you don't close them out at the first opportunity), which we do not want to do. I've been on both sides of it, up 3-2 and lost [in the 2016 ECF against Pittsburgh], down 3-2 and won [in the 2015 ECQF versus Detroit]. I've seen it go every different way. You just have to impart to your team this is the night. Game 7 is not an option. It's Game 6 and let's end it. And you have to have that attitude."
All-time, Tampa Bay is 14-7 in the playoffs with a chance to clinch a series and 5-4 on the road in a clinching scenario.

"There's nothing simple in them," Bolts defenseman Victor Hedman said about clinching games. "We all know the fourth game is the hardest one to win. We obviously put ourselves in a position to do that tonight, but we expect their best game of the series and the best game of their season. We've got to match that and play our game for 60 minutes, try and play like we did in the first period last game and carry that over for the rest of the game."
The Lightning didn't play a full 60 minutes in Game 5, and it nearly cost them, Washington rallying from a 3-0 deficit to cut the Bolts' lead to 3-2 late. But Andrei Vasilevskiy was stellar in net for the Lightning in keeping the game-tying shot out of the net, and his teammates in front of him played desperate, shot-blocking hockey to keep the Caps from getting a Grade-A scoring chance over the closing seconds of that contest.
Tampa Bay knows if it wants to exit Washington D.C. with a victory tonight - the Lightning are 7-0 all-time in the playoffs in D.C. - and move on to play the expansion Vegas Golden Knights in the Stanley Cup Final, it will have to replicate its performance from the first period of Game 5 and carry that through over the course of the entire game.
"I think that first period the other night was our hockey," Stralman said. "That was us at our best. The struggle we've been having is maintaining it for 60 minutes. That's going to be key tonight because we can't back off like we did for the last 40 minutes of that game and just let them take over the game and really push us back. I think we were happy we got that game, but I think if you look overall in that game, it wasn't great except that first 20 minutes. So that's where we want to be and that's the goal tonight to be as close to that as we can."