Blowout series are no fun, well unless your team is the one of the winning end of said blowout, but for online betting purposes a lengthy series is best. With that said the Penguins leveling the Eastern Conference Finals makes us anticipate more hockey to be played.
After Tampa Bay swept the Islanders and took game 1 of the series, as the underdogs for the first game, it seemed that they were well on their way to a big upset. But Game 1 cost the Lighting Big Ben Bishop, who went out with a knee injury. Despite that blow, Tampa managed to take the first game from the Steel City, 3-1.
Game 2 had the Penguins with their backs against the wall and with the urgency of getting a win. With Bishop out with an injury, the Lightning had to result on backup Goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy. After a furious offense in first period, both teams were gridlocked at 2 goals apiece. This series was expected to be rough and tight, and for the rest of the game we saw just that. Both teams trying to take advantage, but both goalies were on point keeping the score all the way through to overtime.
In sudden death, Penguins Center Sidney Crosby snapped a goal drought of 9 games, giving his team the much needed win leveling the series, and thus giving the Penguins a new lease on life. Online betting experts that picked the Penguins all exhaled, this Lightning team is tougher than a $2 steak.
Now the series moves to Tampa Bay, and at the time of writing, the odds have not yet been posted. However considering how the Lightning have been playing so far, they are most likely to be the favorites. The Penguins are in a must win scenario if they want to regain their home ice advantage. Losing both games against Tampa will place them in the edge of elimination. The Lightning might be favorites on both games, but the Penguins will steal at least one of the two as they appeared to snap out of their first game funk. Crosby’s goal might just be the needed boost he was looking to help Pittsburg carry on for the rest of the series.
As for the Lightning, in a previous article here on SBG Global Sportsbook, we stated that online betting fans should take this team very seriously. Their fabulous post season run, reached the first loss in 5 games. Although we do predict that the upcoming two games in Tampa Bay will leave us with no team leading the series, it shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone if the Lightning manage to put the proverbial lock on the series looking to even things out on Penguin country. But this series deserves to go to distance; both teams have been impressive all post season. And if this game 2 was any indication of what’s to come, we might have a classic and epic series ahead of us (enter here a lot of fire emojis). Let’s keep our fingers crossed!