TAMPA [url=http://www.pantherscheapshop.com/cheap-authentic-kawann-short-jersey]Kawann Short Jersey[/url] , Fla. — Four games into the Eastern Conference final, the Tampa Bay Lightning and Washington Capitals are tied 2-2, but getting there hasn’t been anything as expected.

The road team has won all four games, with Washington dominating its way to a 2-0 lead in Tampa, only to see the Lightning pull back even with two road wins themselves.

The Capitals are 7-1 on the road and 3-5 at home in the playoffs, so do the Lightning really have an advantage with two of the remaining three games at Amalie Arena?

“It seems like in this series, the pressure shifts on the home team,” said Lightning coach Jon Cooper, whose team is 5-1 on the road in the playoffs against the New Jersey Devils, Boston Bruins and Capitals. “The big, glaring 0-4 is staring at you. Home-ice advantage has been a disadvantage in this series. Having said that [url=http://www.billscheapshop.com/cheap-authentic-bruce-smith-jersey]Bruce Smith Jersey[/url] , I’d rather have Game 5 at home. I believe we’ll be a different team than we showed up in Games 1 and 2.”

In a battle of division winners, the Lightning are in the conference final for the third time in four years and the Capitals are here for the first time in 20 years.

Which will be the advantage to push one team to the Stanley Cup final?

Capitals forward Tom Wilson said the advantages of home ice are lessened in the playoffs, when both teams have ample energy and intensity because of what’s on the line.

“It doesn’t really matter this time of year, whether you’re home or away,” Wilson said after the Game 4 loss. “Every game is huge and the emotion is going to be there. Road, home, it doesn’t matter. We’re going to go after it and hopefully get the next one.”

Special teams have been at the center of Tampa Bay’s turnaround, as well as stellar play in net from Vezina Trophy finalist Andrei Vasilevskiy. The Lightning have gone 6 of 14 on their power play in the series, improving on the success rate for what was the NHL’s best power play in the regular season.

Even more impressively, Tampa Bay’s penalty kill, which ranked in the bottom five of the league in the regular season [url=http://www.lionscheapshop.com/cheap-authentic-ameer-abdullah-jersey]Ameer Abdullah Jersey[/url] , went 7 of 7 on killing off Capitals power plays in the last two games. Three of those came in the final eight minutes of the first period Thursday night, as Tampa Bay held onto a 2-1 lead.

Steven Stamkos has dominated on the power play — six of his seven postseason goals and six of his nine postseason assists have come on that unit, matching Nikita Kucherov for the team scoring lead with 16 total points each.

Evgeny Kuznetsov and Alex Ovechkin both have 10 goals to pace the Capitals, who now have the confidence that comes with playing on the road.

Tampa Bay tied for the NHL lead with 25 road wins in the regular season, but it will need to win a home game to win this series. Overall in the playoffs, road teams are 40-34, on pace to challenge the NHL record for most postseason wins by a road team — 47 in 2012.

The Indiana Pacers look to keep their slim hopes alive of winning the Central Division title when they open a regular-season-ending home-and-home series against Charlotte Hornets on Sunday afternoon in Charlotte, N.C.

The Pacers (47-33) trail the first-place Cleveland Cavaliers (49-31) by two games with two remaining but hold the tiebreaker advantage. So if they sweep the Hornets and the Cavaliers lose both ends of a home-and-home against the New York Knicks, the Pacers could still steal the Central title.

More likely, the Pacers appear headed for the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs, where it is possible they will draw the Cavaliers in the first round.

The Pacers won the season series from the Cavaliers 3-1 [url=http://www.ramscheapshop.com/cheap-authentic-troy-hill-jersey]Troy Hill Jersey[/url] , including a 124-107 win in Cleveland in November.

Indiana has won six of its last eight games, including a 126-106 home blowout of the defending champion Golden State Warriors in an emotionally charged game on Thursday.

But the Pacers seemed to run out of gas on the second night of a back-to-back Friday at Toronto, falling 92-73 to the East’s top team in a defeat that virtually sealed Indiana’s fate in the division race.

Recognizing the importance of the game against the Raptors, Pacers coach Nate McMillan seemed resigned to a second-place finish after the defeat.

“They gave us what they had,” he said of the tough back-to-back in the final week of the season. “Our guys just didn’t have it.”

The Pacers can’t fall any lower than fifth in the seedings, so McMillan is afforded to luxury of resting key guys in the final two games should he choose.

One smaller team goal that remains is the possibility of a winning record on the road. The Pacers will take the court today with a 20-20 record away from home.

If there has been a poster team for playing hard in meaningless games, it has been Charlotte (35-45).

After suffering a 41st loss against Philadelphia on March 19, assuring they couldn’t finish with a winning record, the Hornets have won five of nine games.

Three of the four losses came against three of the East’s playoff teams — Cleveland, Washington and Philadelphia.

Rookie Malik Monk exemplified the Hornets’ late-season positive attitude with a career-best 26 points in Friday’s 137-100 win in Orlando.

“I don’t think it’s ever going to get any better than that,” he said. “I’m going out there to play like it’s LeBron (James) [url=http://www.brownscheapshop.com/cheap-authentic-tyrod-taylor-jersey]Tyrod Taylor Jersey[/url] , Russell Westbrook, anybody like that.”

Monk went 8 of 14 from the field and 4 of 6 on 3-pointers while matching his career high in assists with eight in arguably the Hornets’ best game of the season.

Charlotte shot 56 percent overall, 55 percent on 3-pointers, and 92 percent from the free throw line.

Monk has scored in double figures in eight of his last 11 games after scoring 10 or more just six times in Charlotte’s first 69 games.

His current stretch includes 13- and 16-point outings against Philadelphia, and 17 against Washington.

Monk saw no action earlier this season when the Hornets split two games against the Pacers.

Kemba Walker was the big scorer with 41 points when Charlotte, at home, surprised Indiana 133-126 in February.

 [url=http://www.basketballofficialauthentic.com/nba-jerseys/portland-trail-blazers/anfernee-simons-jersey]Anfernee Simons Jersey[/url] ,