ST. LOUIS — Only two teams have swept the Lightning and St. Louis is the last team with a chance to do so.
Not only did the Blues beat the Lightning 1-0 in overtime back on Feb. 7, they were the first of two teams to shut out Tampa Bay (the other being the Wild, one of the two sweeps).
It’s unsurprising that all three teams with a chance to sweep the Lightning are in the Western Conference (Nashville, Minnesota, St. Louis), meaning they only play twice.
That loss to the Blues came during a rough stretch for the Lightning, and was the second loss in a row and fifth in nine games.
But it, coupled with a shootout loss to Vegas two nights before, sparked the Lighnting’s longest win streak of the season.
“As a team, we found out a lot about ourselves during that stretch there,” Jon Cooper said Saturday morning. “It was not too long after that we went on quite a win streak. Learning from that game was really good for us.”
Now, the Lightning has won seven straight and is looking to prevent the last possible sweep.
The lineup
With Yanni Gourde suspended for two games, Adam Erne is back in the lineup, but there are no other changes.
Forward lines:
Palát-Stamkos-Miller
Johnson-Point-Kucherov
Killorn-Cirelli-Joseph
Erne-Paquette-Callahan
Defensemen pairings:
Sergachev-Hedman
McDonagh-Černák
Coburn-Rutta
Goalie:
Vasilevskiy