Finally, the last of eight but by no means the worst.

Tampa Bay (45-25-10-2) are the defending champions of the BRHL2 trophy but they face a tough challenger in the first round from Ottawa. Tampa were led by the small but talented Daniel Briere with 106 points followed Paul Kariya and Alex Tanguay, both had 87 points. Tampa have themselves a star goalie who's no stranger to cup finals in Miikka Kiprusoff. Since being acquired, Kiprusoff has posted a 2.48 GAA and .908 SV% in 51 games for the Lightning.

Ottawa (43-26-8-5) has the second best defense in the league, and they'll need that defense to be present in the series if they have any chance of winning this series. Ottawa is led by the veteran Joe Nieuwendyk with 75 points, probably the first time in 10 years that he's ever done that for a team. Vaclav Prospal and Ladislav Nagy are 2nd and 3rd. After trading away their goalie in Ray Emery, Chris Mason is now the starter and posted a 2.78 GAA and .898 SV% in 28 games for the Senators.

Special Teams

The 6th best powerplay belongs to Tampa, Rolston and Bergeron are the danger men for the Lightning, each have 15 powerplay goals. Tampa also boast four strong defensively minded defensemen, and that's given them the 10th best penalty kill. Also taking into account that Tampa only conceed 16 PIM a game, this makes Tampa deadly.

However, Ottawa are no slouches on the powerplay, just one place behind Tampa in 7th. This could be a series fought in special teams, but again Tampa have the edge in penalty kill as Ottawa sit in 13th place on the penalty kill. The deciding factor could be in how disclipined each team is. In the regular season however, Ottawa conceeded 20 PIM a game, that gives Tampa two more powerplays to work on.

Tampa and Ottawa split the season series, 1-1-0 but Tampa had 6 goals while Ottawa had 5. Mats Sundin led the way for the Lightning with 3 goals in the two games while Ottawa were led by role players such as Alexandre Burrows, Jim Vandermeer and Trevor Linden with two points each.

Where the series will be won or lost for:

Tampa Bay
    - Won - Daniel Briere continuing to shine, Kiprusoff pulls out the magic of             2005
    - Lost - Lack of depth if injuries occur

Ottawa
    - Won - Mason plays outstanding hockey, veterans play above their heads
    - Lost - If Mason cannot step it up, special teams battle

Prediction

Though Tampa won the cup last year, they're no longer the favourites to win but I would classify them as a possible darkhorse to win. In this series I see Tampa pulling it out of the fire in 7 games.