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Lightning Round: Tampa Bay and Syracuse with two big wins on Saturday night

Syracuse Crunch can clinch their playoff berth tonight

Yesterday, the Tampa Bay Lightning finished their five-game homestand with a 6-2 victory against the Nashville Predators. The Bolts have now outscored their opponents 14-3 in the last two games and improved their record over the last five games to 4-1-0. The Lightning are still third in the Atlantic division with a three-point lead over the Boston Bruins and five-point deficit behind the Toronto Maple Leafs (with one game in hand) [Raw Charge]

After Thursday evening’s rout of the Maple Leafs, the Lightning maintained that momentum against a physically imposing Predators team battling for their playoff lives. Tampa Bay did just that as they outmuscled, outplayed, and out-skilled their opponent throughout the game. Importantly, Tampa Bay won this game without inflicting the baffling mistakes that have plagued them for the better part of the past month and a half.

Some Lightning’s players reached new career milestones during the last night too. Brayden Point, after sitting out against the Leafs on Thursday, recorded his 200th career assist with a helper on Nikita Kucherov’s power play goal.

With another assist last night, Victor Hedman set a new career high for the most assists in a single regular season with 57. He also joined former Lightning player Dan Boyle as the only defensemen in franchise history to score 20 goals in a season.

Steven Stamkos has been very hot over the past five games. With four games left in regular season, Stamkos is five points away from setting a new career high in a single regular season.

In the meantime the Syracuse Crunch defeated the Laval Rocket 5-1 yesterday at the Upstate Medical University Arena in Syracuse. Max Lagace posted fifth consecutive win with 19 saves in this game.

After winning all three games during their homestand, the Crunch have extended their home winning streak to 10 games.

The Crunch could also clinch a playoff berth tonight, if they will earn at least one point against the Hershey Bears or if the Rochester Americans will lost in any kind.

Hockey News

Another busy night in the NHL.

After beating the Leafs in overtime, the Panthers set a new record with 13 consecutive wins. The Bolts will face them tonight in Sunrise.

The Nashville Predators’ Roman Josi became the first defenseman to score 90 points in a regular season since Ray Bourque in 1993-94.

Former Lightning prospect Bokondji Imama scored his first NHL goal in his second career game in the league.

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