Brock Boeser provided the offense and Thatcher Demko finally beat the Tampa Bay Lightning. Boeser’s hat trick coupled with Demko’s 22 saves were too much for a flu-riddled Lightning team to overcome. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 18 of 21 shots in the loss while Brayden Point had the lone goal for the Bolts.
While Steven Stamkos was able to return, Victor Hedman was scratched with an upper-body injury. That meant Haydn Fleury was in for his second straight game while Mitchell Chaffee made his Lightning debut.
Despite the jumbled up lines, the Lightning started off strongly and it was an old reliable combination that opened up the scoring. Nikita Kucherov led them in one a clean entry before dishing it over to Brandon Hagel on his right. Hagel zipped it over to a pinching Mikhail Sergachev. Instead of shooting, he sent it back across to Brayden Point who had a tap-in into the empty net. It’s never too many passes when the puck ends up in the back of the net.
With the lead, the Lightning did an excellent job of shutting down the Canucks’ cycle game. Vancouver isn’t a team that will beat you off of the rush a lot, but if they are able to get set up in the zone and start whipping the puck around, they can be trouble. Tampa Bay was quick to the puck and quick to get it out of the zone.
Unfortunately, they did take a penalty, at least in the referee’s eyes as Erik Cernak was booked for holding. With the extra skater, Vancouver was able to string some passes together and the puck eventually ended up on Andrei Kuzmenko’s stick. He may be struggling to score this year, but he looked like his old self as he ripped past Vasilevskiy on the glove side.
As good as they were defensively in the first, some cracks appeared in the Lightning’s game in the second period. Vancouver started to build their offensive cycle on consecutive shifts. Eventually it paid off. They picked off a clearing attempt and while Vasilevskiy was able to make the initial save on JT Miller’s shot, the rebound popped over to Boeser, who was open after Cernak had fallen to the ice. Boesser swept a backhand home to give the Canucks the lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
Seven minutes later, Boeser picked up his second of the night as Quinn Hughes found him in the slot (off the cycle again). Boeser smoked a shot past a partially screened Vasy to make it 3-1. The Lightning had their chances, especially on the power play, but Demko, who entered the night with an 0-3 record against the Lightning in his career, was sharp when he had to be, namely on two point-blank chances from Steven Stamkos.
The Lightning came out with a little more pressure in the third, but couldn’t solve Demko and Boeser eventually completed his hat trick on on a empty net shot with just over a minute to go.
It wasn’t a horrible game for the Lightning, maybe they were a little flat, but it wasn’t the type of game where they were constantly coughing up the puck or making bad passes. Honestly, they looked like a team that might not be feeling 100%. Their passes were off just a little and they didn’t capitalize on the chances when they had them.
Twice Brandon Hagel had pucks come to him on the back post – the first one he had peeled off before Point’s pass got there, the second he wasn’t able to get a clean shot off of the feed from Kucherov. In the third period they generated 33 shot attempts and 17 scoring chances, but couldn’t finish.
They’ll have to figure out how to get the puck in the net as they take on the suddenly unbeatable Edmonton Oilers on Thursday.
The Lines
The Goals
Brayden Point (Mikhail Sergachev, Brandon Hagel) 1-0 Lightning
Andre Kuzmenko (Quinn Hughes, JT Miller) Power Play, 1-1
Brock Boeser (JT Miller, Filip Hronek) 2-1 Canucks
Brock Boeser (Quinn Hughes, Filip Hronek) 3-1 Canucks
Brock Boeser (Quinn Hughes) Empty Net, 4-1 Lightning
