Gudas, Radko

TAMPA BAY – The Tampa Bay Lightning have signed defenseman Radko Gudas to a three-year contract, vice president and general manager Steve Yzerman announced today.

Gudas, 22, played in 22 games with the Lightning this past season, collecting two goals and five points to go along with a plus-3 rating and 38 penalty minutes. He made his NHL debut on March 12 at Florida and scored his first career NHL goal on March 20 at Toronto. Gudas ranked seventh in the NHL among rookies with 87 hits despite playing in only 22 games during the 2012-13 regular season.

Syracuse withstands Portland's best punch.

POR-3
SYR-4 (OT)

Syracuse Leads the Best-of-Five Series 1-0

Cedrick Desjardins allowed 3 goals on 31 shots for the victory. 2 of those goals were softies on wrap-arounds that Desjardins needs to wipe out of his game quickly moving forward in these playoffs. He scares me. Point blank, the guy scares me.

First Period
POR Dziurzynski, (1) (Werek), 10:53
POR Rundblad, (1) (Gormley, Martinook), 17:16 (PP)

Second Period
SYR Johnson, (1) (Panik, Palat), 6:37 (PP)
POR Brown, (1) (Lane, Miele), 8:23
SYR Barberio, (1) (Palat, Johnson), 13:32 (PP)

Third Period
SYR Sexton, (1) (Sustr, Devos), 7:54

Overtime
SYR Panik, (1) (Palat, Johnson), 6:36 (PP)

Richard Panik, Tyler Johnson, and Radko Gudas were the game's three stars. While not terribly visible at even strength, Panik showed great hands around the net on the PP setting up Johnson's goal and outwaiting Portland's netminder on the game winner. Panik attack, y'all.

That, I suspect, was Portland's best chance to seize upset momentum in this series. They got a couple of softies out of Desjardins and had the 2 goal lead on the road with a chance to steal home ice in a short 5-game series. The Crunch kept chipping away at it though and eventually wore out the Pirates, who now may have to go without Boris Valabik for a few games after a vicious elbowing major that led to Panik's winner. Syracuse now just has to make sure Brett Connolly, the recipient of that elbow, is healthy along with Johnson and Mark Barberio, each of whom also got banged up during the game. All three returned to action, so hopefully everything is going to be fine.

As quiet as a 3 assist night can be, I thought Ondrej Palat along with Johnson were Syracuse's best players tonight. Palat also drew three penalties out of Portland on top of his scoresheet production.

Game Two is tomorrow night. We'll see what Portland has in the tank.

Box score from TheAHL.com.

Down to one more to go.

TB-0
BOS-2

Anders Lindback allowed 2 goals on 24 shots for the loss.

First Period
NO SCORING

Second Period
04:22 BOS Seidenberg (3), (Marchand, Seguin)
13:31 BOS Paille (10), (Campbell, Thornton)

Third Period
NO SCORING

Again, I'm looking for effort and competitiveness in garbage time of the season. The Lightning outshot a very good Boston team 30-24 in the Bruins' barn. They knew they were in a game tonight, and the silver lining of the loss is the Lightning remain in 3rd most ping pong ball position.

Alex Killorn] had 4 shots and 1 hit in 14:30.

Richard Panik had 2 shots and 3 hits in 14:11.

Radko Gudas had 2 shots, 2 hits, and 1 blocked shot in 18:40.

Pierre-Cedric Labrie played 11:20.

Box score and extended statistics from NHL.com.

Louie Louie.

TOR-2
TB-5

Ben Bishop allowed 2 goals on 28 shots for the victory.

First Period
17:03 TOR Kessel (17), (Bozak)

Second Period
05:54 TB Stamkos (29), (Thompson, Carle)
15:48 TB St. Louis (14), (Thompson)
19:36 TOR Lupul (11), (MacArthur, Franson)

Third Period
03:13 TB Gudas (2), (Purcell, Stamkos)
13:08 TB St. Louis (15), (Aulie, Tyrell)
17:11 TB St. Louis (16), (Lecavalier)(EN)

Martin St. Louis, Steven Stamkos, and Nate Thompson were the game's three stars. What a treat for the Lightning fans who stuck it out and went to the game to get to witness one of the franchise's greats posting a hatter, and how appropriate he polishes it off from an assist from #4. Hold onto nights like these, Lightning fans.

Luckily, the Lightning are still in third-most-ping-pong-balls position by 1 point, and you love to see W's. Strategically speaking, though, they'll be potentially shooting themselves in the foot if they win either of their last two games. Now, I'm not saying they should lay down, but I do think they need to consider giving a close-up inspection of the ice surface.

Alex Killorn was -2 with 2 shots and 1 blocked shot in 16:33.

Richard Panik was -2 with 1 shot and 1 blocked shot in 14:14. He will be on the way to Syracuse for the playoffs.

Radko Gudas was +2 and blew smoke past Reimer on the slap shot for his goal. 1 shot, 4 hits, and 1 blocked shot in 15:35. He will be headed to Syracuse too.

Pierre-Cedric Labrie was +1 with 2 shots and 3 hits in 13:01.

Box score and extended statistics from NHL.com.

The AHL has announced the schedule for the opening round, best-of-five series in the AHL playoffs. Syracuse, as the 3 seed, will be squaring off with the Portland Pirates, which are the 6 seed. The series will begin Saturday night in Syracuse and proceed under a 2-2-1 format as follows:

Eastern Conference Quarterfinals – Series “C” (best-of-5)
3-Syracuse Crunch vs. 6-Portland Pirates
Game 1 – Sat., Apr. 27 – Portland at Syracuse, 7:30
Game 2 – Sun., Apr. 28 – Portland at Syracuse, 7:30
Game 3 – Thurs., May 2 – Syracuse at Portland, 7:00
*Game 4 – Fri., May 3 – Syracuse at Portland, 7:00
*Game 5 – Sun., May 5 – Portland at Syracuse, 7:30

Syracuse will be required to submit their playoff roster to the AHL by 3 pm on Monday. Several players currently with the Tampa Bay Lightning may be on that roster including Alex Killorn, Richard Panik, Radko Gudas, Dana Tyrell, Keith Aulie, and/or Pierre-Cedric Labrie. The Lightning's final regular season game is on Saturday night against the Florida Panthers.