The Tampa Bay Lightning won their second game in a row by the score of 5-1 after beating the Arizona Coyotes for the team’s first home win of the regular season. Alex Killorn scored two goals and added an assist in the win, with Andrei Vasilevskiy stopping 24 of 25 shots for his fourth win. The Lightning are 4-3-1 on the season now while the Coyotes fell to a winless 0-6-1.
Steven Stamkos added a power play goal in the first to pretty much put the game away, with Alex Barre-Boulet and Andrej Sustr sealing the deal with goals in the second and third. Pat Maroon had a fun night, clocking in 24 penalty minutes, including two minors, two fights, and a 10-minute misconduct. The Lightning were also perfect on three penalty kills.
On the numbers front, the Lightning gave up a couple bad chances in the second period, namely a wide open rebound shot for Christian Fischer, but he hit the post so no harm. Overall, shots were even, as well as expected goals. The Lightning had the advantage in scoring chances. Corey Perry had four quality chances to lead the team with Stamkos looking the most dangerous on the power play.
First Period
Pat Maroon and Liam O’Brien had a fight right off the top of the game, giving the Coyotes some energy, but it was the Lightning with the first power play. Point and Stamkos both with shots but couldn’t get it to connect into the back of the net.
1-0
Alex Killorn! Killer scored his fifth goal of the season off a 2-on-1 with Stamkos after a defensive zone retrieval by Jan Rutta, who got the second assist. Rutta won the battle, the Coyotes first defenseman was way too deep, which sent Stamkos and Killorn off to the races.
2-0
Killorn again! A reckless pass from Oliver Ekman-Larsson to his partner Dysin Mayo was picked off by Killorn at the top of the blueline. He was challenged all the way down the ice but deked the puck under Ivan Prosvetov.
Andrew Ladd (c’mon cuz!) cross-checked Mathieu Joseph, sending the Lightning back to the power play.
3-0
Stamkos on the power play! It wasn’t from his usual spot on the right wing, but instead behind the net! Hedman was pushed down to the wing by the Coyotes PKer, so he sent a quick shot-tip to Stamkos at the side of the net. The puck trickled behind the net where Stamkos bounced the rebound off Prosvetov’s back and in.
Perry got blindside boarded by Lawson Crouse, so Maroon took on his second combatant of the game and fought Crouse. Both got fighting majors, Crouse got a boarding penalty, Maroon got an instigator penalty (they were offsetting so 5v5 still), and Maroon got an extra 10 minute misconduct for his second fight. With the fight happening with about five minutes left in the period, we didn’t end up seeing Maroon again until the middle of the second period.
After One
Tampa Bay Lightning after the last four periods pic.twitter.com/NYu118fkZU
— Hardev (@HardevLad) October 28, 2021
Second Period
Maroon got a nice ovation when he finally came out of the box with just over seven minutes left in the second period.
4-0
ABB! Alex Barre-Boulet scored his first goal of the season for the Lightning after being left all alone in front of the net by the Coyotes. Sergachev saw the massive gap open up in front of him and threw a pass to ABB, all he had to do was tip it up and over Prosvetov, which he did beautifully.
After Two
The Coyotes were a better team in the second period than the first, but the Lightning still had a leg up. Shot attempts were 31-22 and scoring chances were 12-8 after two periods. Vasilevskiy was very strong, namely on a couple breakaways and a couple more chances on the power play. There was one shot from Christian Fischer on a completely empty net, but he hit the far post as Vasilevskiy was hopelessly reaching back to stop it.
Third Period
The best chances for the Lightning continued to come on the power play, namely a faceoff win from Point leading to a wide-open one-timer for Stamkos. Unfortunately he rocketed the puck high, but if he had hit the net it would’ve been in.
The Lightning power play is very structured and I think it works for them. Everyone knows where to be with the puck goes one place or another, it also means they’re very good against counterattacks. I wonder if they get so much space around the outside because the three perimeter guys (Point, Hedman, Stamkos) are all lethal shooters and the teams have to respect the one-timer. I don’t think a lot of other teams get that same respect. It’s a good feedback loop because it gives them more room to breathe. Once these guys start to hit the net, they’ll be unstoppable again.
Perry nearly connected with Raddysh in front of the net but the puck was pushed away by Shayne Gostisbehere. Perry got the puck at the side of the net, but was facing away from the goalie, so he pushed the puck between his legs right into the blue paint in a quick move. Raddysh almost got his stick on it, but Gostisbehere got there just in the knick of time.
4-1
Lawson Crouse, who boarded Perry and hit the post earlier in the period, beat Vasilevskiy with a high shot from in tight. Initially, the puck looked like it hit the crossbar, but the play was blown dead some seconds later and review determined that the puck actually hit the net camera and bounced out. It clearly crossed the goal line so the Coyotes finally got on the board with seven minutes left in the game.
The Lightning locked down the final several minutes of the game, getting one 2-on-1 chance in the process. Joseph and Palat got away clean, but Joseph’s pass across the ice just went over Palat’s stick and jumped into the corner. That would’ve been a fun dagger to end the game on, but…
5-1
ANDREJ SUSTR SCORING IS MUCH BETTER! His first goal since Dec 5th, 2017! It was a point shot that deflected off a Coyote stick in front and completely left Prosvetov out of position. Cirelli and Killorn got the assists, with that assist being Killorn’s third of the night. And I don’t know if it’s Sustr’s personal goal song or something for all defensemen, but AMALIE played “Oops, I did it again” by Britney Spears. Perfect!
And with that…
LIGHTNING WIN! LIGHTNING WIN!! LIGHTNING WIN!!!
— Raw Charge, a Champa Bay Lightning web site (@RawCharge) October 29, 2021
