WASHINGTON (AP) The text message lit up Troy Mann’s phone the morning after the Capitals eliminated the Penguins with a patchwork lineup featuring five rookies. It came from Barry Trotz.”Thanks Manner for having all those rookie Caps ready Fredrik Claesson Jersey Womens ,” Trotz wrote. ”They all played well – you own a piece of this win last night.”Mann beamed with pride when more than a half-dozen players he coached with the American Hockey League’s Hershey Bears contributed to the victory that got the Capitals into the Eastern Conference final. Many of those players are still playing key roles for Washington in the Stanley Cup Final against the Vegas Golden Knights – more than a month after Mann was fired from his job as Hershey’s head coach.This is a bittersweet time for Mann, who had a hand in the development of Jakub Vrana, Chandler Stephenson and Christian Djoos as coach and was an assistant when Braden Holtby, John Carlson, Dmitry Orlov, Andre Burakovsky, Jay Beagle and Tom Wilson went through Hershey on their way to the NHL. Considering the success of those players and Hershey products Nate Schmidt and Cody Eakin contributing for Vegas, the Cup Final is a validation of Mann’s methods of getting prospects ready for the next level.”I called Troy Mann the other day and thanked him for producing a lot of good players,” Trotz said. ”All the players he had the last couple of years are all playing in the Stanley Cup Finals. Guys who haven’t played a (playoff) game before. They’ve brought some of that winning tradition that they had in Hershey. It’s important for those guys to be a part of it.”Mann has remained connected to the Capitals’ playoff run by talking to Trotz and Hershey video coach Mike King, who’s in Washington. Amid interviews with other organizations for another AHL job or work as an NHL assistant, he has watched about 80 percent of the Capitals’ games this postseason and can see the elements in players’ games he and assistant Ryan Murphy harped on improving during their four-year tenure.After giving Vrana some tough love by scratching him in the playoffs a year ago, Mann notices the 22-year-old winger getting between the faceoff dots to create offense like he asked. He watches Stephenson playing with the consistency that was sometimes lacking in Hershey Dylan DeMelo Jersey Womens , which was all part of the plan.”We talked a lot during our time here about what they needed to do at the NHL level to be successful,” Mann said by phone this week. ”The thing we’ve seen the most with our guys is just the improvement level from year to year and month to month.”As much as Mann notices the improvement from afar, the players feel it, too, and credit him for giving them the playing time to grow their games in Hershey, a market that expects championships as much as development.”He just gave us a chance,” said Stephenson, who has seven points in his first Stanley Cup playoffs. ”The type of franchise that Hershey’s been and having so many Calder Cups and things like that, he put a lot of faith in the younger guys and just trusted us. He wanted us to get to the next level more so than you wanted yourself. I really respected him as a coach and liked him as a coach and to have that faith and trust (from) him, it’s helped me a lot.”His support several years ago helped Eakin become a full-time NHL player who said Mann ”knows how to get the most out of his players.” Schmidt, who had Mann as an assistant and a head coach, appreciated pre-practice skills sessions to work on his hands and stick work and the honesty with which he deals with players.”I thought he was great Gabriel Gagne Jersey Womens ,” Schmidt said Saturday. ”You always knew where you stood with him. That’s something that I really respect.”But after three playoff appearances including a trip to the Calder Cup Final in 2016, missing the postseason this year led to the Capitals not renewing Mann’s contract.”Troy is a dedicated and hard-working coach, and we appreciate all he has done for the Hershey Bears,” Capitals general manager Brian MacLellan said in a statement. ”At this point, we feel a fresh approach and a change in leadership is needed in order for us to continue to develop our young players towards the next level and for success at the AHL level.”That stung for Mann, who worked eight of the past nine years in the Capitals’ system, made Hershey his home in that time and believed he did his job.”I think it’s very difficult for anybody to tell me that I haven’t done my job here,” Mann said. ”I’m very grateful they gave me my first opportunity. As much as I’d love to be the head coach of Hershey next year, the only thing I can hope for now is that other NHL teams are recognizing the work that we did here and that’ll help pay off in the next few weeks here of securing another opportunity.”Mann was a finalist for one job already and is in demand as Ottawa, Arizona and Colorado all look to fill AHL head-coaching vacancies. He has a big supporter in Trotz, who said recently the Capitals wouldn’t be Eastern Conference champions without Mann and Murphy helping develop Stephenson, Vrana James Van Riemsdyk Jersey Womens , Djoos, Nathan Walker, Travis Boyd and Madison Bowey.”They did a really good job,” Trotz said. ”They’ve developed well, and they’ve been a big part of it.”—More Stanley Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/tag/StanleyCupFinals— DALLAS (AP) Cory Conacher scored the game-winning goal in overtime for the Tampa Bay Lightning, but Anthony Cirelli stole the show in his NHL debut.With 41 seconds left in overtime, Conacher broke away from Dallas’ Jamie Benn and took a low shot that bounced off goalie Ben Bishop and went in to beat the Stars 5-4.Cirelli had a goal and an assist in the three-goal second period of his NHL debut. The Lightning recalled the 20-year-old Cirelli from Syracuse of the AHL earlier Thursday as an emergency replacement for NHL scoring leader Nikita Kucherov.”How excited can you be for him?” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. ”You’re always going to remember this one. For him to come out and have an impact in the game in such a positive way, it’s fun. He’s a phenomenal kid, and I couldn’t be happier for him.”Cirelli was very excited.”It was an unbelievable feeling. Just being here and being able to play in the game. It was pretty cool just being around the guys. To get a goal too is just something special that I’ll remember for the rest of my life.”It was the Lightning’s fourth game in six nights that went past 60 minutes. Tampa Bay was 3-0-1 in those games to increase their league-leading total to 92 points.”The way we rebounded,” Cooper said, ”especially to come back to back. We had to change time zones and fly a couple of hours. We had good energy early. The power plays hurt us in the first, but really liked our second period. We came out determined. We deserved to get those goals.”Tyler Seguin had two goals and an assist for Dallas Matt Cullen Jersey Womens , which rallied with two third-period goals to move three points ahead in the race for the Western Conference’s first wild card.”We played a very good hockey game and especially in the third period,” Stars coach Ken Hitchcock said. This is gonna end up hopefully being a really valuable point.”Mattias Janmark tied the game with four seconds left in regulation, when he lifted a shot from a scramble over fallen Tampa Bay goalie Louis Domingue.Cooper’s appeal that Dallas interfered with Domingue was denied. There also was a question whether Janmark’s goal came before time expired. The scoreboard clock began malfunctioning with 39 seconds remaining. The clock read 9 seconds, but the video review helped Referee Ghislain Hebert determine that 3.5 seconds was correct.Brayden Point and Steven Stamkos also scored for the Lightning.Dallas’ Brett Ritchie had a third-period goal.Domingue made 31 saves to improve to 4-8. He is 3-1 vs. Dallas in his career.Bishop stopped 20 shots.Tampa Bay’s J.T. Miller had two assists.Dallas tied the game at 1 on the game’s first power play. Seguin’s snap shot grazed the crossbar and went in at 11:05 of the first period.Skating 4-on-4 in the second, John Klingberg skated low into the right circle and passed across. Seguin had the left side of the net empty.The spotlight then shifted to Cirelli. He beat Klingberg to tie the game at 2-2. Four minutes later, Killorn poked in the rebound of Cedric Paquette’s shot that Bishop couldn’t handle. Cirelli also received an assist.NOTES: Cirelli, a first-year pro, had 14 goals and 37 assists in 51 games for Syracuse. . The Lightning played without Kucherov and D Ryan McDonagh. Both have upper-body injuries. . Miller was in his second game with Tampa Bay after the Rangers traded him and McDonagh. . Seguin has scored in four straight games, with a power-play goal in the last two. He leads the Stars with 34 goals and 11 on the power play. . Jason Dickinson had his first assist in his 25th NHL game on Ritchie’s goal. He ended a career-high 22-game streak without a goal. . The Lightning will be home for 12 of the final 17 games. . The Stars will play 11 of their final 18 on the road.UP NEXTLightning: Begin a season-high eight-game homestand on Saturday against Philadelphia.Stars: Play the fourth of five straight home games on Saturday vs. St. Louis.