Nick Perbix saved his first goal of the season for the most opportune time. The defenseman took a feed from Brandon Hagel in overtime and beat goaltender Cam Talbot cleanly to give the Tampa Bay Lightning a 3-2 overtime victory over the Los Angeles Kings. Third period goals from Tyler Motte and Hagel erased a two-goal deficit for the Bolts while Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 19 of 21 shots to give coach Jon Cooper his 500th regular season win.
The Lines
The Lightning carried the play in the first period, not that they were running up the shot clock, but they did spend more time in the L.A. zone than vice versa. It was a bit more of a patient approach for the Lightning as they seemed more content to keep the puck along the boards or in the corners and not force pucks through the middle of the ice.
Their two best chances came off the rush, first with Mikey Eyssimont dashing in and laying a wrister right on Cam Talbot’s crest. A few minutes later, Nick Paul was able to turn a defender and slash across the front of the net. Talbot was just able to get his right toe on the puck to direct it wide as Paul went for the far-side tuck.
More impressively was how the Lightning kept their shape in the defensive zone, allowing just six shots on goal, despite being shorthanded for two minutes. It wasn’t a perfect period, but for once a turnover didn’t end up in the back of the net. A bad clear by Steven Stamkos led to an extended shift for the Kings, but his teammates smothered any real chances for the Kings.
The second period, well, it was a 2023-24 Tampa Bay Lightning period. Did they play well for a vast majority of the period? Yes. Did they get denied a goal because no one knows what goaltender interference is? Yes. Did they have a three-minute spurt where their mistakes ended up in the back of the net. Unfortunately, also yes.
Goal number one was courtesy of a somewhat confused entry by the Kings that allowed Jordan Spence a little space. It appeared that everyone was covered in front of Vasilevskiy, but Phillip Danault’s stick was open and he was able to slide the puck into the net off of the centering feed.
Phillip Danault (Jordan Spence, Trevor Moore) 1-0 Kings
Goal number two was off of an offensive zone turnover by Nikita Kucherov. That allowed a clean exit and trip through the neutral zone for the Kings. With the Lightning changing behind the play, Matt Roy was able to creep through the slot and shoot back across the crease. His shot clipped the bar and went in.
Matt Roy (Kevin Fiala, Trevor Moore) 2-0 Kings
The Lightning pushed back after the second goal and it looked like they had gotten one back when Anthony Cirelli jammed one home from underneath Talbot. It was originally ruled a goal (despite a whistle being blown before it went in), but upon review it was determined that Cirelli had interfered with Talbot prior to the goal.
The washed goal and ensuing scramble in front of the net fired up the crowd a bit, and the Lightning kicked things up a notch. They didn’t score, but Stamkos drew a high-sticking call at the end of the period to give the Bolts almost a full power play to start the final period.
They weren’t able to convert on the first power play, nor were they able to convert on the one that followed right after when Brandon Hagel was checked in the head. L.A. absolutely shut down one of the best power plays in the league by simply not letting them set up in the zone. Some boos rained down on the ice as the Lightning’s attempts at forcing the puck in were repeatedly repelled with ease.
As the game wore on, it did look like this was going to be yet another game that slipped through the fingers of the Lightning due to a bad stretch of play. Tyler Motte had other ideas. With about 7:30 left to go, he made a nice play to force a turnover in the neutral zone. Mikey Eyssimont took it into the zone and drew a couple of defenders down low before dropping a pass back to Motte in the slot. The veteran snapped it home for his third goal of the year. The Lightning had a little life.
Tyler Motte (Mikey Eyssimont) 2-1 Kings
Three minutes later, they had a tie. A Kings line change gave Nick Perbix a free out and he dished it to Hagel at the blue line. At that moment, Hagel decided to take over. He accelerated quickly, and slipped in front of Carl Grundstrom, who is still wondering how he managed to not only miss Hagel, but also the puck. Hagel, on his backhand, jammed the puck home to tie up the game. Pretty sure folks in Clearwater heard his primal scream after he put it into the net.
The puck was dug out of the net and flipped to the Lightning bench because it’s going on Emil Lilleberg’s mantle (or shelf, he probably doesn’t have a mantle). The Norwegian picked up his first career NHL point on the play.
Brandon Hagel (Nick Perbix, Emil Lilleberg) 2-2
The Lightning made it to overtime (after a brief scare that saw the puck jump over the stick of an open Trevor Moore). It was a well-earned point, but they’re at the point where they need to steal as many as they can, and thanks to Hagel, they did just that.
Hagel gathered the puck in his own zone and peddled down the ice. He maintained possession along the boards despite being wrapped up by Pierre-Luc Dubois. As he was being shepherded to the blue line, he spied Nick Perbix in the middle of the ice and threw the puck at him. Perbix was able to stop the puck with his skate and maintain the inside track on Trevor Moore and then beat Talbot with a backhander.
Nick Perbix (Brandon Hagel) 3-2 Lightning
Did they take advantage of a team that has struggled to close out games recently? Yes. But they also stuck to their game plan and did a lot of the little things really well. It was a game that they had to grind out, and they did. Over the last two periods they held the Kings to just two high-danger chances.
We mentioned in the preview that the Kings just don’t give up a lot of scoring chances, but the Lightning racked up 37 of them on the night according to Natural Stat Trick. Perhaps the Tampa Bay Lightning are finally finding their identity.
