"It might come down to one game, one moment, one save.

You're there or you're not.

That's the life of a playoff goaltender.

"You never know when the opportunity is going to come around again," Lightning goaltender Dwayne Roloson said.

He's 41, the oldest active goaltender in the NHL and he feels born again. He'll help lead the Bolts into the playoffs for the first time in four years.

It has been five years since Roloson played postseason hockey, the 2006 playoffs, a memorable run, but still bittersweet.

Dwayne Roloson got hot at just the right time, and the Edmonton Oilers, seeded eighth in the Western Conference, stunned top-seed Detroit, then beat San Jose and Anaheim to reach the Stanley Cup finals against the Carolina Hurricanes.

Roloson had all 12 Oilers wins in the playoffs and a 2.33 goals-against average. But in the third period of Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals, his run ended when Edmonton teammate (now Lightning teammate) Marc-Andre Bergeron drove Carolina's Andrew Ladd into the goal mouth, taking out Roloson. Knee injury — done.

"You never know what can happen," Roloson said.

Carolina went on to win the Cup in seven games. The Conn Smythe Trophy for playoff MVP went to 22-year-old Carolina rookie Cam Ward … a goalie.

It doesn't matter how young or old you are, how famous or not. When a goalie gets hot, and stays hot, it's amazing to watch.

Just ask Lightning founder and Hockey Hall of Famer Phil Esposito.

Forty years ago, Esposito and Bobby Orr powered the defending Stanley Cup champions, the big, bad Boston Bruins, into the 1971 playoffs. The Bruins had scored a monstrous 399 goals, Esposito with an incomprehensible, record-shattering 76. Nothing could stop them, certainly not Montreal in the first round.

Then a lanky Canadiens rookie goaltender named Ken Dryden, with just six NHL games to his name, stepped between the pipes.

"I called him 'The Octopus' because it looked like he was all arms and legs, flopping all over the damn place," Esposito said."