The Tampa Bay Lightning have been set as home betting favorites on the NHL odds at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com for Wednesday night as they play host to the Washington Capitals in the deciding Game 7 of the NHL’s Eastern Conference Final.
Tampa Bay is pegged at -145 with Washington coming back at +125 on the betting lines, with the total listed at 5.5 goals for the contest at Amalie Arena.
The Capitals staved off elimination on Monday night with a 3-0 shutout victory as -130 betting favorites in Game 6. Washington goalie Braden Holtby stopped all 24 Tampa Bay shots in the win, while T.J. Oshie scored twice – including once into an empty net. Devante Smith-Pelly also scored for Washington on the night.
Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy gave up two goals on 33 shots in the losing cause.
The win for Washington on Monday put an end to a three-game losing streak for the team in the series. The Capitals won Games 1 and 2 of the best-of-seven set by scores of 4-2 and 6-2 on the road in Tampa Bay. The Lightning then rebounded with a pair of 4-2 wins in Washington in Games 3 and 4 to even up the set at two victories apiece.
Game 5 in Tampa Bay then saw the Lightning jump out to a 3-2 series advantage with a 3-2 win as -150 home betting favorites. Cedric Paquette, Ondrej Palat, and Ryan Callahan staked Tampa Bay to a 3-0 win in that game, before Evgeny Kuznetsov and Alex Ovechkin cut the deficit to one goal. Vasilevskiy stopped 28 of 30 Washington shots on the night.
Totals bettors have seen the OVER pay off just once so far in the first six games of the Eastern Conference Final, in Washington’s 6-2 Game 2 victory. Three of the first four games of the series were a PUSH on the posted total, according to the OddsShark NHL Database, while the last two games were UNDER results.
Puck drop for Wednesday night is set for 8:00pm ET in Tampa Bay. The winner advances to the Stanley Cup Final against the Vegas Golden Knights, which is set to get underway on Monday night.
Vegas advanced to the Stanley Cup Final with a five-game series victory over the Winnipeg Jets in the NHL’s Western Conference final, and now sits as the -105 favorite on the updated Stanley Cup odds. Tampa Bay is at +210 on those futures, with Washington set at +280.
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