There was a moment, roughly eight minutes into the second period, when a collective “here we go again” went up among Tampa Bay Lightning fans. The Lightning were leading 1-0, but had multiple chances to increase the lead go by the wayside. As an unsuccessful Tampa Bay power play ended, the puck found its way to Los Angeles’ Jacob Moverare as he stepped out of the penalty box. Moverare hit Quinton Byfield with a perfect pass and the young center beat Andrei Vasilevskiy with the shot. Just like that it was 1-1.
However, the officials huddled near the scorekeeper’s box and announced that the play was under review. A rather quick look at the play determined it was off-side wiping the goal off of the board, and the Lightning maintained their lead. Eventually, they would double it, and then seal the deal with an empty net goal. Behind Andrei Vasilevskiy’s 28 saves, they snapped their two-game losing streak with a 3-0 win.
For the first time in seemingly forever, they weren’t bemoaning two points lost despite a solid effort. Instead they could celebrate a win with a sigh of relief. Much like they did against Chicago, they got on the board first. It started with Vasilevskiy wandering out of his net to play the puck up the boards where Gage Goncalves picked it up. The rookie sent a backhand pass through the neutral zone to Brandon Hagel, who was able to enter the Los Angeles zone with speed. He walked Jordan Spence and then beat David Rittich with a nice shot.
Brandon Hagel (Gage Goncalves, Andrei Vasilevskiy) 1-0 Lightning
The chances kept coming for the Lightning as they piled up 14 scoring chances against a Los Angeles team that was dragging a bit after their tough 3-0 loss to Florida on Wednesday night. Unfortunately, the chances were being stopped by Rittich, who finished the night with 30 saves, several of those of the athletic type.
There was more pressure from the Lightning in the second period, at least at even-strength. The Lightning also had two power plays, including the aforementioned one prior to the overturned goal, but they were a little flat with the extra skater and couldn’t generate much out of them. Hanging onto that 1-0 lead, the Lightning didn’t give the Kings much in regards to Grade A opportunities, and when they did, Vasilevskiy was there to stop them.
In the third, the Lightning didn’t sit back and admire the 1-0 lead. While the Kings did make a push to tie things up, the Bolts still generated eight more scoring chances at even strength. With under five minutes to go in the game, they finally put one past Rittich. Off of a face-off in the Lightning zone, Hagel did a nice job to intercept a pass and fired it up to Nikita Kucherov who was behind the Kings defense. Rittich went old school with a lunging poke-check to deny Kucherov, but Hagel, who had never stopped skating on the play, was there to put home the rebound for his second goal on the night.
Brandon Hagel (Nikita Kucherov) 2-0 Lightning
Because the Lightning are allergic to doing things the easy way, they took a penalty with just over two minutes left in the game, allowing Los Angeles a 6-on-4 advantage. Despite the two-skater advantage, the Kings weren’t able to generate any real chances and Hagel eventually intercepted the puck. He flung it down the ice where Anthony Cirelli, who was goalless in his last six games, tucked in the empty-netter.
Anthony Cirelli (Brandon Hagel) Short-handed, Empty Net, 3-0 Lightning
The Bolts snapped their two-game losing streak and moved ahead of the Boston Bruins in the wild-card standings with the win. They will face the New York Islanders, who are riding a six-game winning streak, on Saturday.
The Charts
#NHL GameScore Impact Card for Tampa Bay Lightning on 2025-01-30 #GoBolts
— HockeyStatCards (@hockeystatcards.com) January 30, 2025 at 10:00 PM
[image or embed]
