The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Dallas Stars 6-3 at the Amalie Arena in Tampa Friday night.
With a line-up that featured some familiar names, both old and new, a lot of the players that figure to be a part of this team when the regular season opens were on hand to take care of the visiting Dallas Stars on Friday night.
Defenseman Anton Stralman, one of the key off-season acquisitions for the Lightning opened the scoring at 8:04 of the first, getting an assist from former Rangers teammate Brian Boyle and another from Brett Connolly.
At 11:36, Dallas tied the game on a goal by Nicolas Blanchard who was assisted by Brett Ritchie and Jason Dickinson.
Just under five minutes later at 16:06 Brendan Ranford gave the Stars a 2-1 lead, geting help from Colton Sceviour and Vernon Fiddler
Before that goal could be announced, Cody Kunyk tied the game at 16:35, assisted on the play by Victor Hedman and Henri Ikonen
The period ended with the teams tied at two.
Similar to Tuesday night’s game, the Lightning seemed to get stronger as the game progressed and they dominated Dallas in the second period.
At 4:36 of the second, Stralman struck again, this time unassisted.
Nikita Kucherov doubled the lead to two goals, scoring at 8:34 with helpers from Steven Stamkos and Ryan Callahan.
Starting goaltender Ben Bishop played 29:46, during which he stopped 11 of the 13 shots he faced. He was replaced by Evgeni Nabokov, who would go on to fend off eight of the nine shots that came his way during the rest of the game.
At 13:26 Matt Corrente came out of the box after serving two minutes for slashing, his fourth penalty of the night. He was rewarded with the puck on his stick, compliments of Boyle, and skated in alone to score the Lightning’s fifth goal of the night.
The Lightning led 5-2 after two.
At 7:44 of the third, Callahan scored unassisted to stretch the lead to four.
That was trimmed back to three at 9:00 when Jason Spezza scored on an assist from Ritchie, but that would be the end of the scoring for both teams.
The Lightning are now 2-1 on the pre-season and will head south to Naples after Saturday’s Fan Fest to resume training camp activities. Their next game is in Dallas on Tuesday night.
Game notes:
- In case you were at the game and are confused by a video of the Lightning’s Director of Public Relations Brian Breseman showing off a hideous black sweater with lots and lots of palm trees on it to Lightning players (also worn by in-game arena host Greg Wolf) shown on the scoreboard during the first period, that is NOT the new alternate jersey (although, strangely enough, I kind of want one).
- The Lightning were whistled for eight penalties on the night, four called on Corrente, to six on Dallas. Neither team converted on resultant power plays.
- The Lightning have yet to score on the power play this pre-season
- The Bolts outshot Dallas 28-22.
- Tampa Bay ran their streak of unbeaten “home” pre-season games to seven.
- Speaking of Fan Fest, where the actual alternate sweater will be unveiled, outdoor activities start at 9:30AM tomorrow (Saturday, September 27) and the doors to the arena open at 10:00. Admission is free./
