Saturday night’s game against the Colorado Avalanche ended up being a wild one for the Tampa Bay Lightning. After a scoreless first period, the Lightning scored four goals in a 4:11 span. The Avalanche added a goal of their own to make five goals scored in 5:05. The Lightning added to their 4-1 lead early in the third period to go up 5-1 and then allowed three unanswered goals by the Avalanche to bring the lead down to one. The Lightning picked up another one and then gave up the two-goal lead again to produce an action packed final six minutes of the period defending a two goal lead.
The game featured 11 different Bolts recording a point. Some players put up performances they haven’t in quite a while, and some players that have been performing all season continued to do so. Let’s take a closer look at some of these accomplishments from the game.
Yanni Gourde – One goal, two assists, three points. This was the second time in Gourde’s career he’s had two assists, the first coming 11/8/2017 at the San Jose Sharks. This was also Gourde’s first three point game of his career.
Nikita Kucherov – One goal, one assist, two points. This was the 16th game of the season where he has recorded multiple points and the 72nd time in his career. His season record is 23 times (in 2016-17). Kucherov is now on a four-game goal and point streak.
Anton Stralman – Two goals, one assist, three points. This was his third multi-goal game of his career and first since 2/5/2016 at home against the Pittsburgh Penguins. This is also only his second three-point game in his career. The previous game came with the Columbus Blue Jackets on 4/1/2011 against the Chicago Blackhawks. It is also his 37th career multi-point game and 2nd of the season. Stralman broke an 18-game goal-less drought.
Victor Hedman – One goal, one assist, two points, plus-three plus-minus rating. This multi-point game was Hedman’s fifth of the season and 72nd of his career. It was the 21st time his career of registering a plus-three or better. His career high is plus-four, which he has done twice. Hedman is now on a three-game point and assist streak.
Mikhail Sergachev – One goal, one assist, two points. Sergachev also picked up his fifth multi-point game of his season and career with his two-point performance.
Jake Dotchin – One assist, one point, plus-four plus-minus rating. Dotchin’s plus-four set a new career high for him, breaking his previous career high of plus-two, something he has accomplished five times in his career.
Brayden Point – One assist, one point. Point extended his point streak to seven games and his assist streak to four games. He also broke a five-game goal scoring streak.
Tyler Johnson – One assist, one point. Johnson also extended his point streak to seven games and his assist streak to six games. He has five multi-point games over his seven game streak and has put himself in a three-way tie for fifth most points on the Lightning.
Another interesting note is that the Lightning have yet to have a hat trick this season despite the insane offensive totals. Nikita Kucherov recorded the last two hat tricks for the Lightning on 2/27/2017 and 3/23/2017. Stralman was the latest Bolt to have a bid at one and was on ice near the end of the game during an empty net, but was unable to get an opportunity to take a shot at the far end.
The Lightning have had 52 hat tricks in franchise history, but only two have come from defensemen. The first came from Doug Crossman on 11/17/1992 at the New York Islanders. The last came from Dan Boyle on 12/23/2006 at home against the New York Rangers.
The Lightning gave up their first hat trick of the season during this game, scored by Gabriel Landeskog. It’s the first hat trick the Lightning have given up in a win since Nils Ekman scored three for the Pittsburgh Penguins on 11/8/2006 in a 4-3 overtime win for the Lightning.
