Benchmark International Arena

Tampa Bay begins the season Oct. 1 at the New York Rangers, then opens at home two days later against the Washington Capitals. For the first time since 1994, the NHL will play an 84-game slate.

While not choosing between building a Rays ballpark and modernizing the Bucs' facility, a letter from the board to Hillsborough officials urges officials to keep the aging 65,000-seat stadium in money-making form.

Andrei Vasilevskiy, a runaway winner in voting by the league's GMs, earned the honor for the second time in his career. He learned about the honor during a prank carried out with help from Tampa police.

Montreal scored twice off fluky deflections and rookie goaltender Jakub Dobes made 28 saves to eliminate Tampa Bay in the opening round of the playoffs for the fourth straight season.

Gage Goncalves scored off his own rebound at 9:02 of the extra period to end a scoreless tie and keep Tampa Bay alive for a series finale on Sunday at Benchmark International Arena.

Tampa Bay is down 3-2 in the best-of-seven and on the brink of first-round elimination for the fourth straight postseason. The teams head back to Montreal for Game 6 on Friday night.

Fans can get together to watch Tampa Bay and Montreal battle on Friday at Armature Works and Sunday at Coachman Park.

J.J. Moser notches the game-winner, and Nikita Kucherov ends a three-year postseason goal drought when his wraparound sends the game into the extra period. Game 3 is in Montreal on Friday night.

Juraj Slafkovsky scored his third power-play goal 1:22 into overtime to lead Montreal to a 4-3 victory over Tampa Bay. Game 2 is back at Benchmark International Arena on Tuesday night.

The best-of-seven series begins on Sunday at 5:45 p.m. at Benchmark International Arena. Game 2 will be Tuesday night before the teams switch to Montreal for Games 3 and 4.

Tampa Bay earned home-ice advantage and will open against the Montreal Canadiens on Sunday.

Iowa sent the top-seeded Gators back to Gainesville from Tampa and moved onto the Sweet 16, which won't have any Cinderellas this year.