The save of this year’s playoffs has already been decided.
Game 2 of the first-round series between the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning was tied with 5:57 remaining of the second period when Matt Dumba took a shot against an almost empty net.
Everyone thought he’d given the Lightning the lead. Goalie Sergei Bobrovsky had lunged across the crease in an attempt to stop Nikita Kucherov from scoring, but instead of shooting, Kucherov fed the puck to Dumba, who was all by himself.
Somehow, Bobrovsky got back up from the ice, and with his back facing Dumba, he managed to get an arm out to stop the puck.
He made 21 saves in Game 2, but no one was near as good or spectacular as the complete robbery that was his save against Dumba.
Bobrovsky tried his best to explain what happened during his moment of magic.
”I think the first shot he missed the net and the second one I was a little bit late behind the play,” Bobrovsky said. ”It was desperation, I tried to throw as much body as possible and was able to make the save.”
The crowd was quick to praise the goalie with chants of ”Bob-by! Bob-by!” and he deserved them. Postgame, even his opponents were stunned about the save, which, of course, went viral on social media.
“Call it skill, call it luck, call it whatever you want. I mean it’s an athletic goalie and he makes a desperation move and…[heck] of a save,” Lightning captain Steven Stamkos said.
But Bobrovsky wasn’t the only goalie playing unreal on Tuesday. Lightning’s Andrei Vasilevskiy made 34 saves, and nobody described the dominant performance of both goalies better than Lighting coach Jon Cooper.
It’s easy to forget that these guys just love hockey like the rest of us, and when Cooper saw Bobrovsky and Vasilevskiy play, all he could do was enjoy it.
”Well, you’re looking at two of the best,” Cooper said. ”To sit here and be on the biggest stage in the greatest league in the world and watch two guys like that go toe to toe, sometimes you have to sit here, I know I’m the coach of one of the teams, but kind of marvel.”
