Halfway through the first period of Game Two of the 2021 Stanley Cup Final, Montreal Canadiens winger Paul Byron took a tripping penalty behind his own net to put the Tampa Bay Lightning on the power play. The Lightning sent their top unit, consisting of Anthony Cirelli (injury replacement for Alex Killorn), Steven Stamkos, Brayden Point, Nikita Kucherov and Victor Hedman, over the boards to begin the power play. The Lightning won the offensive zone faceoff and generated several quality shot attempts before the puck was cleared, forcing the Lightning to regroup from their defensive zone with 1:15 remaining on the man advantage. Tampa’s top three forwards (Kucherov, Point & Stamkos) remained on the ice while Cirelli came to the bench in favor of Patrick Maroon and after a long outlet pass to start the breakout, Hedman was replaced by Mikhail Sergachev.
Montreal’s aggressive penalty killing forced a quick turnover and the Lightning were once again forced to regroup from the neutral zone with 1:00 remaining in the penalty. This new unit worked the puck around the perimeter until a Kucherov shot dislodged a strap on Carey Price’s mask, freezing play with 0:29 remaining in the power play. At this point, Kucherov, Point and Stamkos came off the ice after playing 1:31 of the two minute man advantage to be replaced by Yanni Gourde, Tyler Johnson and Ondrej Palat, completing the line change.
This power play can be viewed in its entirety below: Continue reading
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