Lightning confident for Game 6

Associated Press

TAMPA, Fla.

The Tampa Bay Lightning are once again hitching their hopes of blocking Boston’s path to the Stanley Cup finals on goaltender Dwayne Roloson.

Down 3-2 to the Bruins in the Eastern Conference finals, coach Guy Boucher said the 41-year-old Roloson is “the guy that took us here,” so he’ll be in net for Game 6 when the Lightning try to even the best-of-seven series tonight.

The Bruins are one victory away from their first Stanley Cup appearance in 21 years after beating Roloson’s backup, Mike Smith, in Game 5.

Boucher opted to give Smith his first career playoff start after pulling Roloson from two of the previous three games against the Bruins, saying he felt the veteran whose acquisition in January was critical to Tampa Bay’s turnaround season needed a “breather.”

Although Smith was solid during Monday’s night’s 3-1 loss that left the Lightning on the brink of elimination, Boucher sounded as though it was an easy decision to go back to Roloson.

“This is a perfect situation. He’s going to be the only rested guy in the two teams,” Boucher said Tuesday, noting Roloson has responded well to breaks this season.

“He’s like everybody else. He’s one of the hardest working guys on our team. He puts in a lot of hours and a lot of time,” the Lightning coach added. “And he’s like everybody else, at some point or another just needs to breathe a little bit.”

Smith shut down Boston after Roloson fell behind 3-0 in the opening period of Game 4, giving Tampa Bay a chance to rally for a 5-3 victory. He stopped 17 of 19 shots Monday night, with the Bruins’ adding an empty net goal in the closing seconds of a win that that has Boston on the brink of reaching the Stanley Cup finals for the first time since 1990.

The Bruins said regardless of who’s in goal for the Lightning, they must remain focused on how they must play to finish the task.

“We know and we can play better than we did [in Game 5] ,” Bruins coach Claude Julien said.