Bruce Cassidy watched from afar as Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy stoned Travis Zajac on a breakaway and knew that was the kind
of save teams need in the playoffs.One night later
Josh Bailey Jersey , the Boston coach saw up close how Tuukka Rask got his blocker on Mitch Marner’s breakaway attempt on the way to another Bruins
victory.”Every team needs goaltending,” Cassidy said. ”On the road, you’re going
to need a little extra at some point. We got it.”The Bruins aren’t the only team
getting great goaltending at crucial moments as the first round wraps up. While
Rask has them up 3-1 on Toronto, Vasilevskiy is the biggest reason Tampa Bay has
the New Jersey Devils on the brink of elimination and Braden Holtby has
stabilized the Washington Capitals to tie their series against Columbus going
into Game 5 Saturday (3 p.m. EDT, NBC/NBCSN).After a high-scoring start to the
Stanley Cup playoffs, netminders are making spectacular saves when called upon.
A lot of the routine stops, too. Even though postseason scoring is up 7 percent
from last year, Vegas’ Marc-Andre Fleury and San Jose’s Martin Jones combined to
allow just seven goals in eight games – two four-game sweeps – to set up a
second-round showdown. Rask and Vaslievskiy have each given up just nine through
five games and Holtby has stopped 63 of 67 shots since replacing Philipp
Grubauer in goal.”Your job obviously every game as a goaltender is to limit bad
goals,” Holtby said Friday. ”Your goalie’s there to calm things down at the
right minutes – make a big save here and there.”Big saves are a bigger deal this
time of year than volume, considering how many harmless shots are flicked at the
net from long range. Sometimes those go in, like when Boston’s Torrey Krug
floated a weak shot past Frederik Andersen in Game 4 Thursday night.Few of those
have happened in these playoffs against Rask, Holtby and Vasilevskiy, a finalist
for the Vezina Trophy, the NHL’s top goalie award. Rask’s 2.27 goals-against
average and .926 save percentage are indicative of just how solid he has been in
giving the Bruins a chance to close out the Maple Leafs on Saturday (8 p.m. EDT,
NBC).”He’s one of the best goalies in the world and gives us an opportunity to
win every night,” Bruins winger Brad Marchand said of Rask, who won the Vezina
in 2014.Rask might be salty that he wasn’t one of the three Vezina finalists,
finishing behind Nashville’s Pekka Rinne, Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck and
Vasilevskiy, who get a postseason trip to the awards show in Las Vegas.
Vasilevskiy earned it with a strong first half of the season, struggled late and
is back in form with Atlantic Division-champion Tampa Bay able advance with a
win Saturday (3 p.m. EDT, NBC/NBCSN).Lightning coach Jon Cooper doesn’t think
Vasilevskiy played poorly in the final quarter of the regular season as much as
his team’s defensive game sagged. That has changed against the Devils, though
Vasilevskiy has bailed out Tampa Bay on a few occasions.”When your team’s
playing better defense it helps your goaltender out and he doesn’t have to make
as many highlight-reel saves,” Cooper said. ”I think what you’re seeing in the
playoffs is a group that’s been determined to play both ends of the ice, and in
turn that’s helping Vasilevskiy out.”Game 4 Thursday was Holtby’s first time
allowing fewer than two goals in a start since Nov. 18. But the 2016 Vezina
winner insists he doesn’t feel any different than before his time off to reset
his game in March.He just looks like his old self.”I think it’s got him to a
place where he feels like Braden Holtby again, like he trusts his game, he
trusts what he’s put in,” coach Barry Trotz said. ”He’s focused on the right
things and it’s allowed him to get to a place where I think he feels very
comfortable.”STEPPING UPWhen Bruins star Patrice Bergeron’s streak of 104
consecutive playoff games ended because of an undisclosed injury, unheralded
Riley Nash excelled centering the top line of Marchand and David Pastrnak in
Game 4 in Toronto.”He plays a two-way game,” Bruins center David Krejci said.
”He’s got good skills as well, so he fit well on that line.”Cassidy said a
decision on Bergeron playing in Game 5 won’t come until Saturday. Toronto center
Nazem Kadri will return from a three-game suspension for boarding Tommy
Wingels.Lightning winger Ryan Callahan is a game-time decision against the
Devils
Brady Skjei Jersey , who are likely to be without top defenseman Sami Vatanen.Columbus center Alexander Wennberg skated Friday and could return after
missing three games after a hit to the head from Tom Wilson. Washington won’t
have winger Andre Burakovsky for the rest of the series because of an upper-body
injury that Trotz said requires ”minor” surgery.Without Burakovsky, Chandler
Stephenson earned the promotion to the Capitals’ top line and has thrived with
significant ice time alongside Nicklas Backstrom and T.J. Oshie.”It’s something
you only dream of,” Stephenson said. ”Growing up watching them and then finally
playing with them, it’s quite the special feeling.”CLOSE THE DEALGoing through a
grueling run to the 2015 Cup Final taught Cooper a lesson about the benefits of
finishing a team off in elimination games. The same goes for the banged-up
Bruins because they’re on a crash course to face the Lightning in the second
round.”If you have a chance to win a series early, do it,” Cooper said. ”Just to
get the mental and physical rest, and then (have) all the other series go
deep.”—AP Sports Writers Jimmy Golen in Boston, Mitch Stacy in Columbus, Ohio,
and Fred Goodall in Tampa, Florida, contributed. ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) The
Minnesota Wild added one of their top prospects for the stretch run of the race
for the playoffs, signing left wing Jordan Greenway to a three-year, entry-level
contract on Monday.The 6-foot-6, 230-pound Greenway was expected to join the
team in time to play at Nashville on Tuesday, with seven games to go in the
regular season. The Wild are in third place in the Central Division, just ahead
of a crowded race for the two Western Conference wild cards.Greenway had 92
points in 112 games for Boston University. The Terriers lost to Michigan in the
Northeast Region final of the NCAA Tournament on Sunday.The 21-year-old Greenway
had 13 goals, 22 assists and 52 penalty minutes in 36 games in his junior
season. He took a hiatus to play for the U.S. team at the Olympics in South
Korea, scoring one goal in five games while playing often on a checking
line.”It’s rare to find a player with that combination of size, speed and skill,
and he’s a guy we think is ready to play in the NHL,” Wild general manager Chuck
Fletcher told reporters. ”It’s a tough league. I’m sure there are going to be
adjustments, and he’s going to have to learn the league and figure out how his
game translates at this level, but having said that the skill set is pretty
impressive.”Greenway, who was drafted in the second round in 2015, can give the
club a big-bodied, aggressive presence at the net that it could use more
of.”He’s certainly a physical strong man on the ice, but just a very good kind
person off the ice,” Fletcher said. ”He gets along with people and loves life.
He’s worked hard for this. I’m very happy for him.”The Wild also reassigned
right wing Zack Mitchell to the minors on Monday.—
