The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Philadelphia Flyers 5-3.
Steven Stamkos scored his 53rd goal of the season, breaking a team records for goals scored in one season. The previous record holder had been Vincent Lecavalier, who scored 52 goals in 2006-2007. Lecavalier had 56 assists that season, while Stamkos has only has 35 this season thus far.
So congratulations to Stamkos on the new team record!
The story of the game was shots on goal. As in, the Lightning only had 15 shots on goal for the entire game. They had a grand total of two shots in the second period alone. Sure, they won the game, but that it’s still a concern when 10 of those 15 shots came from 10 players. The only players that shot that were had more than a single recorded shot on goal were Tom Pyatt with two, and St. Louis with three.
Because of that, Dwayne Roloson had to bring his A-game. And he did. This was perhaps the best game this season for Roloson. He was in last season’s playoff form. There’s no question that he stole this game for the Lightning.
Another crazy stat is that, while the Lightning allowed 38 shots by the Flyers, they also blocked 25 shots. Brett Clark blocked six shots, while Eric Brewer blocked five. While most of the blocked shots were done by defensemen, even forwards got into the act. Pierre-Cedric Labrie had three blocked shots, while Stamkos had two.
The goal scored by Martin St. Louis is his first since March 15th, and only his second goal scored for the month of March. Ryan Malone’s shorthanded goal in the first was only the second short-handed goal for the Lightning this season. Teddy Purcell is the fourth undrafted Lightning player in team history to have reached the 60-point plateau with his assist on the Stamkos goal. And Pyatt’s goal was his fourth goal in the past three games – and it’s the first 3-game goal scoring streak in his career.
The next game is tonight at the Boston Bruins. Game time is 7:30 pm Eastern. The Raw Charge game thread will be available at 7 pm. Come join us!
