Brayden Point scored twice in the span of less than three minutes to erase an early deficit and the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the St. Louis Blues 4-2 to begin their five-game road trip. Nick Perbix and Alex Killorn also recorded goals for the Bolts while Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 23 of 25 shots.
Tyler Pitlick opened the scoring just 2:39 into the game as he split the Lightning defense and took a feed from Alexey Toropchenko before beating Vasilevskiy with a wrister. Point would equalize ten minutes later and then give the Bolts the lead on the power play at the 16:43 mark. The Bolts finished 1-for-2 with the man advantage while killing off all three St. Louis power plays.
Nick Perbix, who assisted on Point’s first goal, would score the eventual game-winner at the 12:44 mark of the second period. St. Louis goaltender Jordan Binnington brought his glove in front of his mask to stop Perbix’s shot from the point, but it hit the goaltender’s mitt and bounced over his shoulder and into the goal. Unfortunately, the rookie would not finish the game as he took a heavy hit along the boards later.
Pavel Buchnevich brought the game within one a minute later, but then Alex Killorn, off of a slick feed from Brandon Hagel made it 4-2 with under two minutes to go in the second period.
Despite not adding to their lead in the third, the Lightning did have some chances, posting an expected goals of 1.07 in the third frame alone, but more importantly, they locked things down defensively, allowing zero high-danger chances, just one scoring chance, and only four shots on goal at 5v5. They also managed to kill off the Blues lone power play in the period.
In all, a solid victory to kick off a long road trip.
The Highlights:
Brayden Point (Nick Perbix) 1-1
Brayden Point (Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov) Power Play, 2-1 Lightning
Nick Perbix (Mikhail Sergachev, Brayden Point) 3-1 Lightning
Alex Killorn (Brandon Hagel) 4-2 Lightning
