Stanley Cup semifinal: Lightning-Islanders Game 7 live updates

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Yanni Gourde scored the only goal shorthanded, and the Lightning beat the Islanders 1-0 in Game 7 Friday at Amalie Arena to return to the Stanley Cup final for a second straight season.

Tampa Bay, which won the best-of-seven semifinal series four games to three, will play Montreal in the Cup final, which begins Monday in Tampa.

Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped all 18 shots he faced to become the first goaltender in NHL history to record three series-clinching shutouts in the same postseason.

Anthony Cirelli and Alex Killorn assisted on the winning goal. Ryan McDonagh had five hits and two blocks to lead the defense.

Here’s how it happened:

Postgame celebration

Third period

Bailey shot from the slot wide of the net

Palat on the Lightning bench. He might have been hit by a McDonagh shot

Rutta shot from the right point blocked up out of play

Killorn forces the puck out of the Lightning zone

Point shot from the left circle held by Varlamov

Colton shot from left circle doesn’t get through to the net after a feed from Johnson from below the end line

Islanders’ Komarov has gone to the locker room

Bailey shot from the slot sticked aside by Vasilevskiy and Point clears the puck out of the zone

Hedman clears the puck out of the zone after Vasilevskiy fights off Dobson shot from the right point with his shoulder

Centering pass for Bailey goes off his stick

Martin backhand shot blocked in front of the net

Barzal fans on chance from the left circle with an open net in front of him, then has a shot blocked

Palat shot misses the net

Varlamov saves Gourde bad-angle shot, and Coleman unable to get to the puck in front

Varlamov goes off the ice for an extra attacker with more than two minutes remaining

Gourde sends the puck down the ice, and Goodrow beats the Islanders to the puck, enabling the Lightning to keep the puck deep in the Islanders zone

Sergachev shot blocked by Bailey

Palat clears the puck

(Lightning win 1-0)

Second period

Goodrow penalized for cross-checking Pelech in the offensive zone, and the Islanders get the first power play

McDonagh laboring after blocking Palmieri shot

Leddy shot from the center point doesn’t get through

Cernak blocks a shot

McDonagh picks off a pass and the Lightning clear the zone

LIGHTNING GOAL! Gourde scores shorthanded from the slot after Cirelli feeds him from the right circle. The play started when McDonagh intercepted a pass in the Lightning zone. Lightning 1, Islanders 0.

Pulock shot blocked

Puck gets past Pulock and exits the zone

Lightning kill the penalty

Varlamov fights off Kucherov shot from the left circle with his blocker

Varlamov with a glove save on Cernak

Savard hits Palmieri

Varlamov stops Gourde shot from left circle

Hedman shot/pass wide right of the net

Kucherov shot misses the net

Varlamov stops Cirelli backhand shot from the slot

Varlamov sticks aside Stamkos shot from the left circle

Cernak blocks Pelech shot

Sergachev laboring after being hit by Martin into the end boards

Sergachev briefly left the Lightning bench but has now returned

Sergachev shot blocked in front

Hedman shot from the high slot appears to be tipped by Palat but Varlamov keeps it out of the net

Savard shot deflects wide off stick of Mayfield and skate of Maroon

Colton with a nice move below the goal line but doesn’t see Maroon, who is open

Gourde shot from the right faceoff dot stopped by Varlamov after the Isles couldn’t get the puck out of their zone

Mayfield shot from the right point gloved by Vasilevskiy. Puck was going wide, anyway

Mayfield shot from the point deflects wide

Eberle wrist shot blocked by McDonagh

Palmieri shot from the left circle misses the net

Barzal shot from the side boards blocked

(Lightning lead 1-0 after two periods)

First period

Leddy blocks Killorn shot, but Killorn stays with the puck and gets it to the net. Varlamov makes the save.

Varlamov saves Cernak shot from the side of the net

Pageau ties up Point as Kucherov tried to get the puck to him in the slot

Point shot from the slot doesn’t get through to the net. Mayfield blocked the shot.

Vasilevskiy stops Beauvillier on a breakaway with a right pad save

Greene with a big hit on Gourde

Colton knocks down Clutterbuck along the boards in front of the Lightning bench

Rutta shot from the right point blocked by Martin

Rutta can’t keep the puck in the offensive zone and the Islanders gain possession

Pelech hits Coleman

Vasilevskiy kicks out Zajac shot

Coleman eventually lifts the puck out of the zone, relieving pressure

Johnson has a chance in front but his shot goes off Greene’s skate

Nelson shot blocked up out of play

Varlamov stops Hedman shot off a partial breakaway

Johnson shot short-side shot hits Varlamov up near the mask

Greene takes the puck from Stamkos as he entered the Islanders zone 1-on-2

Varlamov stops Killorn shot from the left circle

Clutterbuck backhand shot from the slot misses wide

Coleman shot from the sideboards kicked out by Varlamov

(No score after one period)

Pregame scouting report

The team with the worst record in the postseason field has clinched a spot in the Stanley Cup final. Now, it’s time for the defending champions to do their part to join them.

The Lightning will either advance to the NHL’s championship series for a second consecutive season or be eliminated from the playoffs, depending on the outcome of tonight’s game against the New York Islanders.

The Stanley Cup semifinal series is tied at three games apiece entering Game 7 at 8 p.m. at Amalie Arena. The winner will host the Montreal Canadiens in the Cup final starting on Monday.

The status of Lightning wing Nikita Kucherov, the postseason’s leading scorer with 27 points, is expected to be a game-time decision. Kucherov left Game 6 on Wednesday after being cross-checked in the back by Islanders defenseman Scott Mayfield on his first shift of the game.

In Kucherov’s absence, Tyler Johnson, Yanni Gourde, Steven Stamkos and Anthony Cirelli moved up to the first line at times during Game 6 to play alongside center Brayden Point and left wing Ondrej Palat. Cirelli, with a goal and an assist, was the most effective of the bunch and saw the most time on the line.

Palat took Kucherov’s spot in the right circle on the power play.

Tampa Bay defenseman Erik Cernak, hit hard into the end boards by New York’s Matt Martin in Game 4, also will be a game-time decision. Luke Schenn has started the past two games in his absence.

Also missing in the third period of Game 6 was the Lightning’s forechecking game, as Tampa Bay allowed New York to play in the offensive zone for much of the period, opening the door for an Islanders comeback in a 3-2 overtime loss.

Can a Lightning team that is 12-0 over the past two postseasons in games following a playoff loss bounce back one more time with its season on the line?

Follow along, starting at 8 p.m., and we’ll find out together.

Setting the scene

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