Dwayne Roloson

As the final seconds ticked off, you could see the anguish in the face of Martin St. Louis and Dwayne Roloson. Both are cagey veterans on the backside of their careers; they knew this opportunity might not come again.

Roloson played one of his best games of the playoffs after struggling most of the series. He made 37 saves—many of the ten bell variety—and held his hockey team in the game.

The arena, packed to the rafters with 20,545 rabid fans, pumped with anticipation. Moments before the Lightning took the ice—a 3D video projected on to the ice—firing up the crowd even more and it reached crescendo when their hockey team arrived on scene.

The Pittsburgh Penguins, playoff veterans, have seen this all before. The Lightning, boasting nine playoff newcomers, had not.

The last time Dwayne Roloson was in the Stanley Cup playoffs was Game 1 of the 2006 Stanley Cup Finals.

Then backstopping the Edmonton Oilers, Roloson had led the Oilers—an eighth seed in the Western Conference—past the top-seeded Detroit Red Wings in the opening round, the San Jose Sharks in the second round and, finally, the Anaheim Ducks in the Conference Finals before meeting the Carolina Hurricanes in the Stanley Cup Finals.

As the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs approach, the games get more and more important. Every shift, pass, and shot count.

Some teams are trying to claw their way into a playoff spot, while others are jostling for better positioning. Teams are playing their hearts out and playing the hardest hockey of the regular season.

This leaves quite the difficult task for the goalies.

The goalie is the last line of defense on an NHL team. In some cases, they are the only line of defense.

Before each season people like to make predictions.  Which team will win the cup?  Who will step up and win their division?  What teams will miss the playoffs?   Underlying most of these questions is whether or not a team has the kind of goaltending needed to make a splash.

Unfortunately for some netminders, the season hasn't gone as planned.  Some have lost playing time to a backup.  Others are backups that haven't managed to perform as expected.

After the first two periods of play on Tuesday in Tampa Bay, everything seemed to be going according to plan. Despite a severe lack of zone control in the first period and a half, the Bolts employed strong defensive play and an even stronger transition game to command a 3-1 lead with less than two minutes to play in the second period.

The Washington Capitals finally played a 60-minute game as Nicklas Backstrom and Alex Ovechkin re-appeared on the scoresheet together, four times—and just like that, the Caps' season is fun all over again.

The Capitals defeated the Southeast division-leading Tampa Bay Lightning, 5-2, and in the process snapped the Bolts' six-game winning streak. Tampa lost for just the fifth time at home this season.  

Leaving their unsightly new uniforms on the shelf until next season, the Tampa Bay Lightning donned the ole Black and Silver while leaving the best team in the Eastern Conference, the Philadelphia Flyers, black-and-blue for the third time this season with a 4-0 rout.

The Washington Capitals completed their trip to the Sunshine state winless for the first time since the 2007 season.

The Tampa Bay Lightning once again served notice that they, not the Capitals, are the team to beat in the NHL's Southeast division.

For the second time in eight days Dwayne Roloson and the Tampa Bay Lightning shut out the Capitals to take over sole possession of first place in the division. Roloson’s shutout was his fourth career shutout against the Capitals.