Tampa got the scoring started in the first, when at 12:56 of the opening frame, Cedric Paquette scored his 2nd of the playoffs. The Lightning came out of the 1st period carrying the one goal lead, the same exact thing that happened in game one. Play in the first period was pretty even, with Tampa coming away with a 12-11 advantage in shots. Tampa had a golden chance to get even with about 4:49 left in the 1st period, on a beautiful passing play. Brandon Saad brought the puck over the line, feeding Patrick Kane, who then threw a nice cross rink pass to Jonathan Toews crashing the net. Toews tried to stuff it five hole on a sliding Bishop, but Bishop closed the pads in time, making a fantastic save, keeping it a 1-0 Bolts Advantage.
Moving to the 2nd frame, Tampa once again had more shots on net, but this time it was both teams each scored twice. Chicago got the jump just 3:04 into the middle frame, Andrew Shaw connects for his 5th of the playoffs. The Hawks weren't done there, as Teuvo Teravainen kept his hot shooting in the finals, scoring a powerplay goal. The goal came at the 5:20 mark and was his 4th goal of the post season. At this point your starting to think back to game one that this could be an exact replica of what happened in the opener of the series. Then Tampa came back, and in a big way/
The Triplets line, who had been quite in game one of the series, finally came back with a bang in game two. Nikita Kucherov connected for his 10th of the playoffs, at the 6:52 mark of the 2nd, to pull the Lightning even. Kucherov hadn't found the back of the net since the game six loss to the Rangers in the east finals, so that was kind of a monkey off the back. Tampa would re-take the lead at the 13:52 mark as Tyler Johnson scored his 13th of the playoffs, and his first since game three of the East finals. So the triplets line was able to find the back of the net, helping the Bolts reclaim the lead heading into the final period.
Here's where things got interesting. Lightning starting goaltender Ben Bishop left the game twice in the third period, once briefly and then for good with 7:41 left. Bishop started the period and was in net when Brent Seabrook scored 3:38 into the final period, the 7th of the playoffs for Seabrook. That caused a bit of agitation from Tampa, a case in which they may have had a right to complain. As the shot was coming in from Seabrook at the point, Marian Hossa was crashing the net. Hossa got to the crease at the same time the puck did and Hossa may have bumped into the leg pad of Bishop as the shot was coming in. Bishop went to the refs to complain about the contact, but it fell on def ears. Bishop didn't have something to complain about because all Hossa did was tap his leg pad, it didn't stop Bishop from trying to make that save. So now the Hawks have the game tied up at three.
Here's where things turn interesting. Patrick Sharp goes off for high sticking, to give the Lightning a powerplay. Ben Bishop leaves for an unknown reason, and is replaced by his backup, rookie Andrei Vasilevskiy. Then about a minute after the powerplay started, Jason Garrison rips a shot past Crawford, Garrison's 2nd goal of the playoffs, to give the Lightning a lead. While the team was celebrating the goal, Bishop returned from the room to take his place between the pipes. That didn't last long, as a few minutes later Bishop went back to the room and Vasilevskiy came back out to finish the game. Vasilevskiy played 9:13 in the game, stopping all five shots he faced.
Because he was on the ice during Garrison's winning goal, Vasilevskiy was credited with his first playoff victory, and became the first goalie to win a Finals game in relief since Lester Patrick helped the New York Rangers defeat the Montreal Maroons in overtime of game two of the 1928 Stanley Cup Finals, 2–1. Once the game went final, nobody from the Lightning said what exactly was going on with Ben Bishop, and since then, nobody still has any idea what is going on with Ben Bishop. Nobody from the organization, whether it be general Manager Steve Yzerman or head coach Jon Cooper, have said what has happened with there starting goalie. Its a smart move, because if Bishop may be dealing with an injury, you don't want to give Hawks players a target to go after. Nobody knows yet who is going to be the starting netminder for the Lightning for game three, which is tonight.
Now that the series is even at one, it means there will be at least five games in the finals. There hasn't been a sweep in the Stanley Cup Finals since Detroit swept Washington in 1998
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