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Tampa Bay Lightning could hoist Stanley Cup with win Monday

Stanley Cup Hockey
Posted at 7:48 AM, Jul 05, 2021
and last updated 2021-07-05 07:48:43-04

One more win: that's what Tampa Bay Lightning fans are asking of their team as it sits on the cusp of back-to-back Stanley Cup Championships.

The Bolts are getting ready to take on the Montreal Canadiens for Game 4 at the Bell Centre Monday in what could be the final game of the NHL season.

Tampa Bay holds a commanding 3-0 series lead and has looked dominant for most of the series. Most recently they're coming off a 6-3 victory on Montreal's home ice.

It is hard to imagine longer odds for a team to come back from such a deficit as Montreal now faces. Only one team in NHL history has rallied from a 0-3 deficit in the Stanley Cup Final and that was all the way back in 1942 when the Toronto Maple Leafs came back to defeat the Detroit Red Wings,

And should Tampa Bay close out the series, they'd become just the seventh franchise in the NHL expansion era to repeat as Stanley Cup Champions. The Pittsburgh Penguins most recently did it in 2016 and 2017.

Both teams should be a little more well-rested, as they enjoyed two days off after Game 3.

Bolts fans will also be monitoring the status of Alex Killorn, who has missed the last two games. His status for Game 4 remains unknown at this time.

16,000 fans packed AMALIE Arena for the Game 3 watch party, and you can expect nothing less for what could be the closeout game Monday night. Should the Lightning lose, the series would extend to Game 5, scheduled for Wednesday night in Tampa, which may or may not be complicated by the arrival of Tropical Storm Elsa, depending on what the storm does.

Puck drop for Game 4 in Montreal is set for 8 p.m. Monday.