The Tampa Bay Lightning scored the first goal of the game and the last goal of the game. Unfortunately, the St. Louis Blues scored three times in a row between those two goals as the Bolts drop their third road game in a row, 3-2. Nick Perbix and Victor Hedman had the tallies for the Lightning while Andrei Vasilevskiy, who was denied his 300th win for the second time, finished with 20 saves on 23 shots. Nikita Kucherov assisted on both Lightning goals.
With Brayden Point out due to injury, Gage Goncalves made the start on the third line with Conor Geekie and Cam Atkinson.
First Period:
18:08 – Nick Perbix makes a nice play at the blueline to take the puck away, then gets decked into the boards. Shortly after, Emil Lilleberg heads to the box for holding. Oh, and Tony Cirelli took a shot off the forearm 30 seconds into the game. He’s on the ice for the short-handed face-off, though.
15:19 – The penalty is killed off, and now the Lightning will head to the power play as Kucherov is tripped up in the offensive zone. Brandon Hagel, Kucherov, Mitchell Chaffee, Jake Guentzel, and Hedman are the first unit.
13:17 – Jake Guentzel and Nick Paul with excellent chances on the power play as the Lightning keep the puck in the zone for a large portion of the advantage. Paul was open for a slap-pass in the slot, but the puck hits P.O. Joseph’s skate and goes through the crease.
7:58 – Another power play for the Lightning is coming up as Justin Faulk gets his stick up high in the corner. The Blues with their first real sustained offense in the zone prior to the penalty as the Geekie line gets pinned in a little.
5:50 – The power play generates some chances, especially with Victor Hedman just banging away with the puck. Mitchell Chaffee pokes one just wide as well. Really good pressure, just can’t finish. They are moving the puck well and getting to the loose pucks.
3:00 – Binnington swallows up a big shot from Nick Perbix to halt play. Aside from the one shift the Blues had against the third line, the Bolts have been dictating much of the play.
1:11 – Why not one more penalty? Geekie is heading to the box for high-sticking (but it is being reviewed). It should be overturned as Geekie’s stick didn’t even hit the Blues’ player.
1:11 – There is something happening at the Blues bench that has halted play. The trainer is holding Dylan Holloway’s head in a stable position as he sits on the bench. The arena is absolutely silent right now with all off the players on the ice.
1:11 – The players head to the locker room after Holloway was taken off the bench on a stretcher. The time will be added to the second period. TV replays show him getting hit up high with a deflected puck, but he did finish his shift before heading back to the bench. It was during the penalty stoppage that something happened.
Second Period:
21:11 – As expected, the Conor Geekie penalty was overturned, so the teams finish the final 1:11 of the first period at even strength.
20:00 – Jordan Binnington stops one last shot as the horn sounds. The teams will switch ice and officially start the second period.
17:21 – NICK PERBIX WE DIDN’T KNOW YOU HAD THAT IN YOU! Perbix drives the net, dangles the defender, and then shoves a backhand on the net. Binnington makes the first save, but isn’t able to control the puck and it slides over the goal line. Nick Perbix (Anthony Cirelli, Nikita Kucherov) 1-0 Lightning
13:21 – A little push-back from the Blues after the goal, but the Lightning defense is holding. Good news from the hospital as the Blues announce that Holloway is “alert and stable”. It appears the puck had hit him near the throat area and that was the cause for concern.
12:03 – Tie game. A big shot from the point eludes Vasy’s trapper and Oskar Sundqvist circles in to clean up the rebound. Oskar Sundqvist (Matt Kessel, Zack Bolduc) 1-1
10:59 – A beautiful feed from Kucherov finds Hagel at the side of the net, but the shot doesn’t go in. Nor does Hagel’s attempt at a follow-up wraparound. It looked like a tap-in for Hagel, but he didn’t quite have the angle and the shot goes off the side of the net.
8:10 – The action opens up on both ends and Mikey Eyssimont almost bats one in out of mid-air, but Binnington makes the save.
2:15 – Vasilevskiy with a nice pad save on Brayden Schenn. The coast-to-coast hockey reverts back to more of a grind game as the defenses tighten up.
1:35 – Just as we type that, the Lightning are puck watching and Alexey Toropchenko goes bar down on a feed from behind the net. Three goals tonight, all three are the first of the season for the respective scorers. Alexey Toropchenko (Radek Faksa) 2-1 Blues
0:00 – That’s a wrap on the second period. Overall, not a bad period for the Lightning, but once again a mistake ends up in the back of the net. There wasn’t much Vasilevskiy could do on the Toropchenko shot. Blues did establish their forecheck a little more in the second period, which led to both goals.
Third Period:
19:29 – Chaffee is swarmed by Blue sweaters after he skids to a stop in front of Binnington.
15:24 – The whistle blows on another Lightning offsides. Part of the issue with the line swaps is that the forwards have to adjust on how their linemates enter the zone. It’s been a little off tonight.
14:36 – Big power play coming up for the Lightning as Colton Parayko hooks Guentzel. They had some solid looks on their first two chances, now they need to bury one.
11:09 – The Lightning don’t score with the extra skater, and a few minutes later Jordan Kyrou finishes off a two-on-none. Perbix and Lilleberg challenged in the neutral zone, but weren’t able to slow down the attacking forwards. Jordan Kyrou (Brayden Schenn, Brandon Saad) 3-1 Blues
8:17 – Victor Hedman! It’s a simple game sometimes. Get the puck, hit the holy heck out of it and beat the goaltender. He one-times home a feed from Kucherov after a St. Louis turnover and the deficit is cut back to one goal. Victor Hedman (Nikita Kucherov) 3-2 Blues
3:56 – Nick Paul is in the middle of a scrum as the game heads to it’s final TV timeout. He took umbrage to a hit on Hagel. St. Louis has been the more physical team all night long, which was to be expected.
3:10 – Vasilevskiy is still in the net. Amazing restraint by Coach Cooper.
1:51 – There goes Vasy as the top line is on the ice.
24.7 – The Bolts ice the puck. That will draw the face-off all the way back down the ice and Vasy has to get back in the net.
0:00 – One last rush fizzles in front of the net, and that will do it. The Lightning drop their third game in a row and head back to Tampa looking to right the ship against Philadelphia on Thursday.
The Charts:
Warm-ups
No surprises in warm-ups this evening. Nick Perbix draws in on defense and Andrei Vasilevskiy continues his quest for 400 wins (by getting to 300 first).
Morning Skate Info
The reconstructed lines with Brayden Point out of the line-up:
Coach Cooper didn’t go with just a plug-and-play option when putting Goncalves into the line-up. Nikita Kucherov basically joins the second line while Jake Guentzel slots into the old third line. Conor Geekie moves back into the center of the ice and is flanked by Zemgus Goncalves and Cam Atkinson. Coach Cooper spread the offense over three of his four lines in a hope to get things going.
Jordan Binnington is getting the start for the home team while the Blues adjust to life without Philip Broberg, who is set to miss 4-6 weeks.
Some notes from the Lightning prior to the game:
- Jake Guentzel is riding a four-game point streak that has produced 3 goals and 3 assists.
- Zemgus Girgensons played in his 700th career game on Sunday. He is the third Latvian to reach that mark, trailing all-time leader Sandis Ozolinsh by 175 games. Karlis Skrastins is second with 832.
- Andrei Vasilevskiy needs one more win to reach 300 in his career.
- Victor Hedman is currently tied with Steven Stamkos in franchise history with 582. One more and The Big Swede claims second place on his own.
- Luke Glendening is playing in his 800th game tonight. Congrats!
Per Coach Cooper’s meeting with the media after the morning skate:
- Brayden Point is “out tonight” and they are going to take it “one day at a time”.
- “You get to the third period tied late, you’ve got to get ’em. Unfortunately, for us we haven’t.”
- (On Conor Geekie) “It’s twelve games. He’s still with us. That’s a good sign for him…. You see improvement, and that’s what you want to do with your guy. You don’t want to overwhelm him, and he hasn’t been overwhelmed. So that’s good.”
