Late into the night, the Tampa Bay Lightning were tied in overtime. Their best defenseman had not played since the second period. They were shorthanded with one of their best penalty killers in the box. Steven Stamkos had not played all night. It was the type of moment where they had seen games slip though their grasp.
Seattle’s Vince Dunn circled around the top of the ice to fire a puck on net. Instead of finding a way into the net, it hit Luke Glendening. Sprawled on the ice, the Lightning center pushed it out of danger and Tampa Bay regrouped. Minutes later, Nikita Kucherov buried a feed from Brandon Hagel and victory was theirs.
The play was indicative of how the Lightning gutted out a 4-3 win against a struggling Seattle team. Should they have been in overtime after building a 2-0 lead in the first period? Probably not, but they were, and they found a way to get back into the game. First it was Nick Paul who tied the game in the third period, then it was Glendening and the rest of the penalty killers in overtime. Nikita Kucherov, who had his 11-game point streak snapped against Nashville, scored twice and added an assist in the win. Anthony Cirelli, who has had a scoring renaissance as of late, had a goal and an assist. Andrei Vasilevskiy picked up his third win in a row with 26 saves on 29 shots.
It was a bit of an ominous start for the Lightning as they pulled out the 11/7 line-up for the first time in awhile due to Steven Stamkos missing the game with an illness. Both teams played cautiously to begin with, neither wanting to make a big mistake, which could be expected from a team on a six-game losing streak (Seattle) and a team that hasn’t tasted victory on the road in their last four games (Tampa Bay).
After a good, but unsuccessful power play, the Lightning began to build momentum as they piled up the shots and barely allowed Seattle to cross the center line with possession. Eventually it would pay off as Tanner Jeannot drove the net and gathered his own rebound off of a shot. He was able to work the puck back to Nick Perbix who let a shot go from the point. Anthony Cirelli was in position to to deflect it past Philippe Grubauer for the game-opening goal. For Tony Two-Goals, it marked it his fourth goal in four games. In that stretch he has six points total.
It’s a good run of offensive, but nothing like the production put up by THAT MAN, Nikita Kucherov. As the clock ticked to under a minute in the period, Kuch drifted to the back post and tapped in a nice pass from Brayden Point to make it 2-0. Credit to Hagel and Point for a nifty passing play to draw attention away from Kucherov for the goal.
As has been the case far too often this season, the Lightning started to coast a little with the lead and Seattle came back in the second period. After having a goal erased due to an offside, the Kraken cut the lead to one goal as Oliver Bjorkstrand just flipped a shot from the boards at the net. Either Victor Hedman’s stick deflected the puck or took Vasilevskiy’s vision away, but no matter what happened, the puck was in the back of the net.
Less than three minutes later, Jamie Oleksiak ripped a shot from distance past Vasilevskiy. It was another screened shot for the goaltender, but it was a good job by the veteran to put his shot on the near side as Vasilevskiy was drifting a bit to the center of the crease.
It wasn’t all rainbows and ponies for Seattle in the period, though. Just as it ended, Grubauer, who had 21 saves on the night, appeared to injure his leg as he attempted to stop a short-handed rush from Cirelli and Hagel.
Joey Daccord was in net to start the third period and he had a lead to protect just 15 seconds in as Jared McCann put yet another shot from far away past Vasilevskiy. For the Kraken, it was their first lead in seven games. They liked it so much they tried to double it just 8 seconds later, but Vasilevskiy absolutely stoned Vince Dunn from in close.
That save would prove to be vital as the Lightning found a way to get back into the game, something that hasn’t been the case a lot this year. They held the Kraken to just 3 scoring chances at 5v5 in the third period and that was without Victor Hedman, who left with about three minutes to go in the second period and didn’t return. Despite his absence, Tampa Bay eventually found the equalizer at the seven-minute mark. Anthony Cirelli slung a puck down low to Nick Paul, who deflected it past Daccord to tie things up. Are the Tampa Bay Find-A-Ways back?
Cirelli had a late penalty that carried over into overtime that led to Glendening’s key block shorthanded. Brandon Hagel then gathered the puck in his own zone, sped past Matty Beniers and then turned Jordan Eberle. That gave him a lane to make the pass to Kucherov and Nikita buried it for the win.
The Lines
The Goals
Anthony Cirelli (Nick Perbix, Tanner Jeannot) 1-0 Lightning
Nikita Kucherov (Brayden Point, Brandon Hagel) 2-0 Lightning
Oliver Bjorkstrand (Eeli Tolvanen, Will Borgen) 2-1 Lightning
Jamie Oleksiak (Jordan Eberle)
Jared McCann (Vince Dunn, Jordan Eberle) Power Play, 3-2 Kraken
Nick Paul (Anthony Cirelli, Nikita Kucherov) 3-3
Nikita Kucherov (Brandon Hagel, Darren Raddysh) 4-3 Lightning
