The Tampa Bay Lightning scored on three consecutive power plays in the third period to take control of a scoreless game on their way to a 5-1 victory over the Anaheim Ducks. Steven Stamkos scored twice while Victor Hedman, Calvin de Haan, and Brandon Hagel also found the back of the net. Andrei Vasilevskiy was sharp when the Bolts needed him, making 11 saves in the first period and finishing with a 19-for-20 night.
It was another night with a NHL debut for the Lightning as defenseman Max Crozier skated in his first career game, logging 13:00 with one blocked shot.
The first period was scoreless as both netminders were on their game. The Bolts were probably a little too loose in their defensive structure for Coach Cooper’s liking, as they allowed 6 high-danger chances to an Anaheim team that has struggled to score for most of the season. Vasilevskiy was there to bail them out until things turned in the second period thanks to the Lightning’s special teams.
The first tally came five minutes into the middle frame and it was vintage Tampa Bay Lightning power play puck movement. Nikita Kucherov tried to hit Steven Stamkos with a cross-ice pass, but it was slightly off and forced Stamkos to play it off the boards. With no shooting lane available he fed it back to Victor Hedman who blasted it from the point past goaltender Lukas Dostal.
Victor Hedman (Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov) Power Play, 1-0 Lightning
Coach Cooper wasn’t exactly happy with the play of his team through the first period and early in the second. There was a play that “helped ignite us a bit”. And it came from a rookie:
Emil Lilleberg stepped into and through 6’5″, 218 lb. Brett Leason, who left the game with an upper-body injury.
From that point on, the Lightning pretty much took control of the game. On their next man advantage it was the Captain who found the back of the net. It wasn’t a Stamkosian blast from the circle, instead he was in the right spot for a rebound off of Brayden Point’s shot and was able to slide it through Dostal’s pads to double the lead.
Steven Stamkos (Brayden Point, Nikita Kucherov) Power Play, 2-0 Lightning
With his second assist of the night, Kucherov hit the 800 point mark, the fourth member of the Lightning to achieve that milestone. It was his 109th career multipoint game, which moved him into second place behind only Stamkos who has 148.
The power play goals kept coming, unfortunately the next one was for the Ducks. With Victor Hedman in the box serving 14 minutes worth of penalties, Frank Vatrano, aka Frankie the Rifle, fired home his 21st goal of the season to make it 2-1.
Frank Vatrano (Cam Fowler, Ryan Strome) Power Play, 2-1 Lightning
This was a key moment of the game. With Hedman off the ice serving a misconduct, the Lightning defense consisted of Calvin de Haan and a bunch of guys with less than 100 games under their belts, including two rookies in Emil Lilleberg and Crozier. Not only did they manage to hold the lead, they increased it, courtesy of, yes you guessed it, another power play goal.
Darren Raddysh was running point with Hedman in the box and he did a good job of distributing the puck to his scorers, Kucherov and Stamkos. Kucherov made his cross-ice pass over to Stamkos this time and Stammer looked like he was trying to pass it back to Nick Paul who was parked in front of the net. Instead The Captain got a little goal-scorer’s luck as it hit a skate in front of the net and bounced past Dostal to make it 3-1.
Steven Stamkos (Nikita Kucherov, Darren Raddysh) Power Play, 3-1 Lightning
While the Lightning did all of their damage with the extra skater, they were in control at 5v5, allowing the Ducks just 3 shots on net and just one high-danger chance in the period. It was more of the same in the final period as the Bolts allowed just 10 shot attempts total despite the Ducks having two power plays in third.
Tampa Bay threw 16 shots at Dostal (bringing their game total to 41) and found the back of the net twice. First it was another goal from a defensemen (a trend that has been picking up as of late). After Kucherov just missed on a breakaway, the Bolts forced a turnover in the offensive zone and Calvin de Haan just threw a puck at the net that somehow trickled through the goaltender.
Calvin de Haan (unassisted) 4-1 Lightning
With just under two minutes left, Hagel got in on the action with his 13th goal of the year as he jammed home a nice feed from Nick Paul. Nick Perbix had the secondary assist on the goal to run his point streak to three games (1 goal, 3 assists).
Brandon Hagel (Nick Paul, Nick Perbix) 5-1 Lightning
