Even in their 28 wins prior to tonight, there haven’t been a lot of games where the Tampa Bay Lightning have dominated the ice from beginning to end. Tonight was one of those nights as Nikita Kucherov retook the NHL scoring lead with three points and the Lightning defeated the Arizona Coyotes 6-3. Darren Raddysh scored 24 seconds into the game and was followed by Brayden Point, Kucherov, Steven Stamkos, Mitchell Chaffee, and Luke Glendening throughout the night.
Stamkos finished with two points on the night to eclipse the 1,100 point mark for his career. For Chaffee, his goal was his first in the NHL. Anthony Cirelli skated in his 400th career regular season game and picked up an assist. In all, 12 different Bolts recorded a point while Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 17-of-20 shots on the night.
After being stymied by Conor Ingram the first two times they’ve faced him, it was nice to get that first goal early as Raddysh just made a simple shot from the point as Nick Paul screened Ingram. After the goal, the Lightning pushed the play and forced Ingram to make several more stops. Those saves looked to be key when Clayton Keller tied it at the 8:40 mark. It was one of the few times throughout the period when the Lightning got trapped into their own zone and kudos to Arizona for making them pay. First it was Brayden Point who wasn’t able to clear, and then Max Crozier got stuck with the puck and no one to pass it to. Arizona forced a turnover and Keller banged home a rebound.
Ingram kept making saves and it began to look like maybe it would be one of those games where the Lightning might pile up shots but not goals. They got a huge tally with 34 seconds left as Kucherov sprung Brayden Point down the left side of the ice. Ingram drifted off his mark a bit and Point was able to beat him to make it 2-1.
The Lightning have been on the wrong side of scoring binges a few too many times this season. They flipped the script in this game as they posted a three-goal flurry in less than 8 minutes to take control on the scoreboard. It was Kucherov one-timing his 32nd goal that got things going. Steven Stamkos followed up on the power play for his 20th goal of the season. Recent call up Mitchell Chaffee got in front of the net and banged home his first career goal three minutes later. Crozier and Emil Lillberg had the assists on the #TampaCuse goal.
Arizona got one back as Sean Durzi crashed the net to put home a rebound goal, but at the end of 40 minutes it was 5-2 and the game was pretty much over. There was no letup in the third period as the Lightning’s sixth goal was the result of a hard forecheck by Waltteri Merela and Chaffee that freed up the puck for Luke Glendening, who fired home his eighth goal of the season.
Crozier would have another turnover late in the third period that led to Lawson Crouse making it 6-3. Following the goal, Michael Kesselring planted a crosscheck right into Crozier’s kidneys that sparked a scrum on the ice. Crozier ended up fighting Crouse, and hung in after getting knocked down early. Kesselring earned a 4-minute crosscheck and game misconduct that put the Lightning on a long power play. Despite being up by three, the Lightning went full tilt on the power play and recorded 8 shots and 5 scoring chances with the extra skater. Some excellent saves by Ingram kept them off of the scoreboard.
The game ended without any further shenanigans and the Lightning had their second victory in a row. While the top line garnered a lot of the attention, the fourth line of Merela, Glendening, and Chaffee had a really good game as they had a 7-3 edge in shot attempts, and a 2-0 edge in goals scored while they were on the ice. Three of the four lines were on the ice for 5v5 goals on the night and that depth will serve them well down the stretch.
They will be back on the ice to take on the New Jersey Devils on Saturday for the final game before the All-Star break.
The Lines
The Goals
Darren Raddysh (Brandon Hagel, Anthony Cirelli) 1-0 Lightning
Brayden Point (Nikita Kucherov) 2-1 Lightning
Steven Stamkos (Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point) Power Play 4-1 Lightning
Mitchell Chaffee (Max Crozier, Emil Lilleberg) 5-1 Lightning
Sean Durzi (Clayton Keller, Nick Schmaltz) 5-2 Lightning
Luke Glendening (Waltteri Merela) 6-2 Lightning
Lawson Crouse (Logan Cooley) 6-3 Lightning
