Sean Bergenheim scored two goals and Dwayne Roloson stopped 33 shots, helping the streaking Lightning complete a series sweep of the top-seeded Capitals with a 5-3 victory in Game 4 on Wednesday night in Tampa, Fla.
Playing on consecutive nights for the first time this postseason, the fifth-seeded Lightning extended its winning streak to seven games and advanced to the Eastern Conference finals for the first time since its 2004 Stanley Cup championship season.
“We’re definitely happy, but we’re not popping Champagne or anything,” Lightning forward Ryan Malone said. “We know what our goal is and we have to keep going and stay even keel. ”
For Alex Ovechkin and the Capitals, it was yet another bitter postseason disappointment.
The rookie Michal Neuvirth stopped 32 shots for Washington, but Bergenheim scored twice in eight minutes during the second period to build a 3-1 lead that sent the sellout crowd of 20,835 into celebratory mode long before it was over.
The Lightning’s big three of Martin St. Louis, Vincent Lecavalier and Steven Stamkos have elevated their games, but so has Bergenheim, who has a team-leading seven goals through two rounds.
SHARKS 4, RED WINGS 3 Devin Setoguchi’s third goal of the game, 9 minutes 21 seconds into overtime, gave visiting San Jose a 3-0 lead in the second-round Western Conference series. Game 4 is Friday in Detroit.
The Red Wings took a 3-2 lead into the third period, but San Jose’s Dan Boyle scored the tying goal with 4:08 seconds left in regulation, setting up the Sharks’ second overtime win of the series. Pavel Datsyuk scored a go-ahead goal late in the second period, but Detroit could not hold on.
The Red Wings also did not capitalize when Setoguchi went to the penalty box at 5:14 of overtime for holding, failing to score a third power-play goal.
“We know what we have to do or it’s over,” Detroit’s Nicklas Lidstrom said.
Antti Niemi stopped 38 shots for the Sharks.
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