Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

Ben Bishop Faces Another Test

05/16/2015 at 8:44am EDT

from Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times,

Lucky horseshoe or not, goalie Ben Bishop outplayed Carey Price in the last round of the playoffs, lifting the Lightning over the Canadiens.

Price may collect his share of hardware at the NHL awards in June, including MVP and Vezina Trophy as the league's top goalie. But Bishop is the one still playing, the one still with a shot at hockey's holy grail, the Stanley Cup.

However, if Bishop, 28, is going to hoist the Cup, he now must match save for save Rangers star Henrik Lundqvist in the Eastern Conference final, which begins today at Madison Square Garden. Lundqvist, 33, was the 2012 Vezina winner and, like Price, is considered one of the best in the world.

"I kind of look at him as the benchmark," Bishop said. "He's someone who has set the bar."

Bishop is setting his own bar in this postseason, arguably the biggest reason the Lightning is in the NHL's final four. He is 8-5 with a 1.81 goals-against average in his first 13 career playoff games. And by the way, Bishop has never lost to the Rangers (8-0-0, 1.49), including seven head-to-head matchups with Lundqvist, nicknamed the "King."

If Bishop, in his second full season as a starter, slays another one of NHL's elite goaltenders, he might soon find himself in that category.

continued

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Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

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