Returning home: a goal from Montreal defender Romanov prevented Tampa from winning the Stanley Cup in match 4 of the final

Before the fourth game of the Stanley Cup Finals, the Tampa Bay Lightning team, which had won three previous meetings, received an offer once to give way to the Montreal Canadiens on its ice.

This was stated by the mayor of Tampa Jane Castor.

She would like the team from Florida to celebrate their success, which is no longer in doubt, in their home arena, and not abroad, in Canada.

“We would like the Lightning to slow down a bit and give the Canadiens a little respite to win once at home.

Then it would be possible to return the final to the Amali Arena and only then win the Stanley Cup.

We don't want to get ahead of ourselves, but their players show amazing hockey, ”said the ESPN politician.

There was common sense in Castor's words.

Last year, when the entire NHL playoffs were in a bubble, the Tampa players weren't able to fully enjoy their triumph.

They played in front of empty stands and couldn't even celebrate with their families.

Now, however, there are no such strict restrictions, and in recent matches, the Lightning were even allowed to fill the stands of their arena to the eyeballs, while Montreal's Bell Center is still not allowed to everyone.

However, the team firmly rejected this idea.

Head coach John Cooper said that he would never let his players think about giveaways and decide in which city it is preferable to end the final.

So Tampa was determined to win.

However, Montreal also had their own opinion on this matter. Dominique Ducharme's wards wanted to extend the final streak and be in Tampa two more times in order to be able to recoup from the score 0: 3. For the sake of this, the Canadian specialist mixed the combinations within the team and finally returned Alexander Romanov to the application. The defender completely played the entire regular season, but in the playoffs he almost did not get a chance to prove himself - in two games he spent less than 25 minutes on the ice.

The fourth match of the final did not start at all as hoped in Montreal.

"Tampa" unleashed on the owners of the ice all their might.

However, the guests could not hit the gate of Carey Price, and towards the end of the period they conceded themselves.

Nick Suzuki famously brought Josh Anderson to the spot, and he scored the first goal to Andrey Vasilevsky.

Braden Point could immediately equalize with the filing of Nikita Kucherov, but hit the post.

After the break, the game became even, until it was divided into separate segments of removal.

One of the majority rallies almost became effective for Tampa when Victor Hedman hit the post again and celebrated the goal ahead of time.

The guests could not realize the removal again, but they put such a burden on the rivals that right after Barkley Goodrow still restored the balance.

The results of the third period were largely influenced by the massive brawl that took place in the 48th minute.

Three players went to serve penalties from each team, including two main defenders of Montreal.

Here Romanov's finest hour came - the Russian hockey player delivered a powerful long-range shot and scored the first puck in the Stanley Cup and only the second for the entire time in the NHL.

The 21-year-old became the youngest defender for his club to score in the final series.

True, in the next episode, Romanov let his team down.

Five minutes later, he was unable to cope with the offensive of the fourth link "Tampa" and allowed Patrick Maroon to level the score.

The enthusiastic guests staged the final assault, which could well have led to victory, if Kucherov had been a little more accurate.

Once again, the Tampa player hit the post.

The Lightning players immediately had a new chance to win the Stanley Cup. Montreal defender Shea Webber accidentally punched Ondrej Palat in the face and bleeding him to death, for which he received a four-minute penalty. The guests did their best to take advantage of such a generous gift at the end of the match, but neither in regulation time nor in overtime did they hit Price's goal. But the "Canadiens" showed character and a minute after the return of Webber made a quick attack, which ended with Anderson's second goal.

Montreal won a Stanley Cup final for the first time in 28 years. In the decisive playoff series, the score 4: 0 will not be recorded for the 22nd time in a row, that is, never in the 21st century. Tampa still has a high chance of winning the trophy for the second time in a row, and now they can do it in front of their hometown fans, as the mayor of the team's hometown wanted.