The Tampa Bay Lightning made it four wins in a row and leveled their road record for the first time this season as they defeated the Vegas Golden Knights 5-3. Nikita Kucherov had three assists and an empty-net goal as he reclaimed the scoring lead in the NHL. Brayden Point scored twice while Anthony Cirelli and Anthony Duclair also tallied. Steven Stamkos had two assists while Andrei Vasilevskiy picked up his 25th win of the season by stopping 24 of 27 shots.
Tanner Jeannot returned to the line-up and had 7 hits in 10:37 of ice time.
First Period
Heading out on the road against the Stanley Cup champions is always going to be a tough match-up. It becomes even tougher when you decide to give up a goal less than 90 seconds into the game. The Lightning obviously don’t like to do things the easy way as they gave up a three-on-one to the Golden Knights’ top line.
Victor Hedman had pinched in and Nikita Kucherov was unable to knock down a clearing pass. That sprung Vegas and Shea Theodore was able to thread a pass to Jonathan Marchessault and our old friend buried it past a hapless Vasilevskiy.
The Lightning looked sluggish in their start as they had several passes that went nowhere and had trouble clearing the puck. A too-many-men penalty at the six-minute mark looked like it would add to their woes, but Anthony Cirelli and his buddy Brandon Hagel helped turn the tide. They created a turnover in the defensive zone and Cirelli was able to skate out of the zone with speed. He worked a give-and-go with Hagel and was able to lift the puck over Aiden Hill’s pads to finish it off and tie the game up.
Three minutes later, the other Anthony on the team continued to endear himself to Lightning fans as Anthony Duclair swatted home a pass from Nikita Kucherov for his third goal as a member of the Lightning. Kucherov picked up his 115th point of the season with the assist.
While they weren’t completely flawless, the Lightning were a lot crisper to finish out the period, especially in clearing their own zone. They didn’t let Vegas set up their cycle game (a problem that plagued them against Florida) and Tampa Bay was able to get the puck through the neutral zone. That allowed them to get some offense going as they had 17 shot attempts and six scoring chances. Not overwhelming numbers by any means, but pretty good against a tough defense.
Second Period
There wasn’t really much that happened in the second period other than a lot of skating around and pucks pushed away from the net. Each team had a power play that struggled as Vegas had one shot on their advantage while the Lightning didn’t generate a shot on theirs.
The best chances through the first 17 minutes belonged to Jack Eichel, who grazed one off of the post, and Victor Hedman, who had a quick snapshot from the point that Hill had to make a tough save on.
As time was winding down, Vegas was able to generate another odd-man rush as Hedman was caught pinching down low and there was a wide lane for Keegan Kolesar to hit Brett Howden with a long diagonal pass through the neutral zone. The former Lightning draft pick called his own number and snapped a shot past Vasilevskiy.
Vegas had the slightly better run of play as they were able to generate 22 shot attempts to the Lightning’s 11. Tampa Bay did do a good job of limiting the dangerous chances as Vegas was only credited with two, but there just wasn’t enough offense for the road team.
Even with the power play the Lightning only had 5 unblocked shot attempts with just 3 hitting the goaltender. They just didn’t generate enough pressure on Hill. Vegas showed why they’re one of the better defensive teams in the league as they pushed everything to the edges.
Third Period
Vegas carried over their strong play to begin the third period, but took a careless penalty as Nicolas Hague tripped up Stamkos. The third time was the charm despite the Lightning continuing to struggle with zone time. It didn’t take long for Kucherov to find Brayden Point in the slot and the shot beat Hill to give the Bolts the one goal lead.
It only lasted for about three minutes as the Lightning were the victims of some bad bounces. Vasilevskiy made a save, but as he tried to paddle the rebound away, it hit Erik Cernak’s leg. Then Stamkos and Cernak clipped skates and fell down. The puck worked its way out to Ben Hutton who fired the puck into the net.
Tampa Bay didn’t fold, though. They kept generating some offense and got their own break. Kucherov sent a pass down the ice that looked like it might be icing, but Point stepped around Noah Hanifin to beat out the icing. He scuffed his shot a bit as Hanifin stick-checked him, but that threw off Hill’s timing and the puck scuttled into the net.
Vegas was unable to find the equalizer and Kucherov picked up an empty-net goal for his fourth point of the night. It was challenged by Vegas in a desperate attempt to stay in the game, but the officials confirmed it was a good goal and Kuch had his 41st goal of the season and the lead in the scoring race.
The Goals
Jonathan Marchessault (Shea Theodore, Jack Eichel) 1-0 Vegas
Tony Cirelli (Brandon Hagel) Shorthanded, 1-1
Anthony Duclair (Nikita Kucherov) 2-1 Tampa Bay
Brett Howden (Keegan Kolesar) 2-2
Brayden Point (Nikita Kucherov, Steven Stamkos) Power Play, 3-2 Tampa Bay
Ben Hutton (Keegan Kolesar) 3-3
Brayden Point (Nikita Kucherov, Darren Raddysh) 4-3 Tampa Bay
Nikita Kucherov (Erik Cernak, Steven Stamkos) Empty Net, 5-3 Lightning
