Ryan Callahan tallied the go-ahead goal while posting his first multi-point outing of the postseason to help the Tampa Bay Lightning take a 3-2 lead in the Eastern Conference Final as part of a 3-2 Game 5 win over the Washington Capitals Saturday night.
The victory was the third consecutive win for Tampa Bay, who picked up the first win of the series on home ice (by either team) after losing the first two games at Amalie Arena.
Callahan was fully aware that although his team has battled back to take the series edge, the task at hand remains far from accomplished.
"We have a lot of unfinished business. This isn't even close to being over," the winger said postgame. "This last game is definitely the hardest. Against a very, very good Washington team and to go in their building and try to close them out, it's going to be tough."
It was Callahan's marker just 33 seconds into the second period that stood as the game-winner. Andrei Vasilevskiy fended off 27 shots as part of a late surge in offence from the Caps, who outshot the home team 26-9 in the final two periods.
After earlier assisting on Cedric Paquette's opening goal of the game, Callahan followed through on an initial attempt by teammate Anton Stralman. His lack of quit, coupled with a fortunate bounce, helped Callahan double down on points with a goal as he got his name on the scoresheet for the first time in nine games. Callahan wasn't sweating the stats, though. He spoke postgame to a change in mentality in shifting from getting the puck into the net, to keeping the likes of Alex Ovechkin out of the net.
Callahan: "You need to have all lines contributing in different ways. Would we like to be on the scoresheet more than we have been? Absolutely. But when you're not, you have to do other things to help the team win."#TBLvsWSH Game 5 | Ryan Callahan & Cedric Paquette: pic.twitter.com/NEdiKKHElU
— #GoBolts (@TBLightning) May 20, 2018
It's something his team has taken note of all series long.
Ryan Callahan… All. Heart. 👊#TBLvsWSH | #StanleyCup pic.twitter.com/TgqEqylHaW
— #GoBolts (@TBLightning) May 18, 2018
Puck drops on Game 6 at 8.pm. ET with the series heading back to Washington.