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Stanley Cup Finals Game 6: Simplicity Should Seal the Deal for the Lightning

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3 years ago

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Tampa Bay Lightning's Steven Stamkos and Andrei Vasilevskiy celebrate a goal against the Arizona Coyotes at Amalie Arena Thursday, January 9, 2019. Photo: NHL.

TAMPA BAY, Fla. (FNN SPORTS) – Game 1 in the Stanley Cup Finals left Lightning fans fearful to what the series could look like. Dallas came off four rest days and hit the ice with speed, control, and physicality, winning 4-1. In Game 2 Tampa’s familiar hustle and resilience worked in their favor. The Lightning stormed the first period with three goals a couple minutes apart from one another: first Point, next Palat, lastly Shattenkirk.

Tampa’s defensive pairings have been playing outstanding and continued to do so. It all came down to Vasilevskiy, who only allowed one goal in the second and third period, helping the Bolts tie up the series 1-1 in a 3-2 win.

Game 3 was pure magic. Steven Stamkos suited up for the first time since Feb 25th, unleashing an emotional and electric energy throughout the team. More importantly, leave it to the Capitan to not just make an appearance, but an impact within his 2:47 of playing time. 6:58 into the first period, off a pass from Hedman, Stamkos gained control of the puck along the boards and takes a sharp angled shot to the far side on the net for a Tampa Bay goal. The response and support from the bench was moving! The Bolts built off of the play and presence of their Captain in the second period, scoring three more goals between Hedman, Point, and Palat.

Three players who have been leading contributors in Tampa’s playoff run. The Lightning closed out Game 3 with a 5-2 victory. Although everyone was hopeful for more Stamkos play, a Game 4 Stammer was ruled out. You could almost say the guys pulled off this overtime win to honor their Captain. Kevin Shattenkirk, with the winning overtime goal, gave Stamkos a big hug once they exited the ice.

For the first time since 2014 in the Stanley Cup Finals, the Stars and Lightning would face off in back to back games. Game 5, which took place Saturday, was a hard-fought game. Stars’ key player, Corey Perry got Dallas up 1 with less than 3 minutes left in the 1st period. Tampa has had a short response time most of playoffs when it comes to catching up on the board. 4:37 into the 2nd period, Ondrej Palat records his 11th goal of playoffs. The score remained tied until 3:38 into the third, when Sergachev gave Tampa Bay the lead, 2-1. As the game began to wind down and hopes of winning the cup in just under eight minutes, Dallas’ other driving force of the series, Joe Pavelski ties the game back up, meaning more overtime for the Lightning. OT one goes scoreless regardless of the offensive pressure laid on the Stars, and in OT two the Stars forced a Game 6 after Perry gets one past Vasilevskiy.

A tough loss, yes. At the end of the day it is the Stanley Cup Finals and teams find that extra gear right before its time to head home. Tampa has mentioned that their focus after games is to remain even keeled and turning the page to the next game. After the Game 5 loss, Victor Hedman said, “we’re a resilient group and we know how to respond to adversity” something the Bolts have proven time and time again.

According to Coach Cooper in his post-game presser, they played a winnable game, but they’ve been in this position before and rebounded. Cooper said, “I really like how we’ve responded after losses.” As for how this team keeps grinding through and staying unified, “There’s a focus with this group and a collective leadership with Stammer not in the lineup that has been exceptional” and quite obvious, every player on the roster has been ready to step up at any point of these series and made an impact in one way or another, no matter how big or small. After each loss, we have seen the Lightning follow up with a win and the same will be expected tonight as they stick to their game plan and style to close out the series.

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Kasey Hudson is Associate Sports Editor for Florida National News. | sports@floridanationalnews.com

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Magic Gaming to Host First NBA 2K League Game at leAD Lake Nona on May 28

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2 weeks ago

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May 23, 2023

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Orlando, Fla. — Magic Gaming will host Hornets Venom GT on Sunday, May 28 at 2 p.m. at the leAD Lake Nona Sports & Health Tech Accelerator, (7004 Tavistock Lakes Blvd., Orlando), Magic Gaming’s new home. The game is free and open to the public.

Magic Gaming is one of eight teams selected by the NBA 2K League to host an in-person, in-market game during the 2023 season. After doors open, there will be a pregame show and team/player introductions. Following the game there will be a postgame show and Q&A session with the Magic Gaming team.

The match between Magic Gaming and Hornets Venom GT will take place during week two of group play in THE TIPOFF tournament. It will also be streamed on the OrlandoMagicGaming Twitch channel.

THE TIPOFF is the first tournament featuring 5v5 gameplay of the season. For the first time, the NBA 2K League season was separated into 3v3 and 5v5 halves. The 3v3 portion of the season began with the NBA2KL 3v3 SLAM OPEN on March 8 and finished with the NBA2KL 3v3 Finals on Saturday, May 13. The 5v5 competition tips off on Wednesday, May 23 with THE TIPOFF and will culminate with the NBA2KL 5v5 Finals on Saturday, August 5.

Magic Gaming finished the 3v3 season with a 10-17 overall record after a loss in the STEAL OPEN semifinals against Blazer5 Gaming on May 6. In the 2022 5v5 NBA 2K League season, Magic Gaming clinched their first playoff berth in franchise history.

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Orlando Magic, AdventHealth Recognized with Downtown Orlando Partnership Golden Brick Award for AdventHealth Training Center

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1 month ago

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May 4, 2023

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Orlando, Fla. (May 4, 2023) — The Orlando Magic and its partner, AdventHealth, were recognized with the Downtown Orlando Partnership (DOP) Golden Brick Award for the Magic’s AdventHealth Training Center, taking home its Award of Excellence. The DOP awarded 15 Golden Bricks at its annual luncheon on May 2 with projects nominated for community and development which positively impacted downtown Orlando in 2023.

In August of 2022, the DeVos family, Magic and AdventHealth unveiled the state-of-the-art AdventHealth Training Center as part of the Magic and AdventHealth’s continuing commitment to health and wellness. The new downtown facility serves as the training site for the Magic and a destination sports medicine hub to Central Florida. Together, the two organizations continue to build an innovative health and wellness model that brings whole-person medicine, science and research together to optimize sports performance, bringing those learnings to the broader community.

The center, one block from Amway Center, boasts 130,000-square-feet located on a nearly four-acre site at South Division Avenue and West Central Boulevard. The $70 million facility marks the latest investment in the Parramore community and in the continued growth and revitalization of this historic neighborhood.

The Orlando Magic and AdventHealth also furthered its commitment to Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprises (MWBE) with the awarding of $17 million of design and construction contracts for the project to 33 local MWBEs. That amount represented approximately 32 percent of awarded opportunities, which is over the city’s recommended 24 percent MWBE participation.

The facility was designed by HOK, with Balfour Beatty serving as the construction manager.

The Golden Brick Awards is Downtown Orlando Partnership’s exclusive annual awards celebrating the people, projects, and initiatives that propel downtown forward. During the past year, DOP welcomed new projects and introduced those that will enhance the vibrancy and appeal of downtown. Every year, the DOP hosts the Golden Brick Awards to recognize the best community and development projects that impacted downtown.

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XFL DC Defenders defeats Arlington Renegades 28-26 in overtime

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2 months ago

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April 16, 2023

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Photos by Kristina Roulo / Florida National News

WASHINGTON DC (FNN SPORTS) – The D.C. Defenders improved to 8-1 Sunday after defeating Arlington Renegades 28-26 in overtime at Audi Field in Washington, D.C.

May be an image of 8 people, people playing football and crowd

Photo by Kristina Roulo / Florida National News

Currently, the DC Defenders and Houston Roughnecks are still the only teams to clinch playoff spots, giving week 10 a significant amount of consequences for the remaining two spots.

D.C. jumped on the Renegades early as quarterback Jordan Ta’amu threw two touchdown passes and D’Eriq King also had one to give the Defenders a 20-9 halftime lead.

D.C. struck again in the third quarter when former Washington Redskins and longtime NFL safety, D.J. Swearinger intercepted Arlington quarterback Luis Perez and returned it 62 yards for a touchdown. At this point, the Defenders led 26-9.

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Photo by Kristina Roulo / Florida National News

The Renegades made a furious fourth-quarter comeback after a pair of De’Veon Smith touchdown runs and a field goal to suddenly tie the game on a Taylor Russolino 27-yard field goal with five seconds remaining.

The game went into overtime where Ta’amu found Jake Hammond for the score and another Defenders’ win.

Next up for D.C. is a trip to San Antonio to close out the regular season before returning home in two weeks to host either St. Louis or Seattle for the North Division championship.

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