There are times he seems taller than his 6-foot-seven. There are times he seems to be bigger than his 216 pounds.
Take the closing moments of the Tampa Bay Lightning’s 4-2 victory over the Carolina Panthers, when Ben Bishop was as huge as you could imagine.
Bishop closed out the victory with perfect goaltending, stopping all 17 third period shots. Some of them were terrific saves, prompting coach Jon Cooper to refer to the closing moments as “the Ben Bishop show.” Bishop’s best save was against Jeff Skinner at point-blank range.
With his 29 saves, Bishop improved his record to 24-17-3 for the Lightning.
The Lightning won its third straight game, its second on the road in two days. The Lightning is again in second place in the Atlantic Division.
Steven Stamkos scored the winning goal on a power play with 5:43 left to play in the third period. Ryan Callahan added an empty-netter with 9.8 seconds to play, his second goal of the game.
Also scoring for the Lightning was J.T. Brown. Joakim Nordstrom and Michael Jordan scored for Carolina.
The Lightning returns home to play Phoenix Tuesday before returning to the road for four games.
