For forty minutes, the Tampa Bay Lightning were going about their business and pressing their way to a workman-like victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets. Then, for fifteen minutes, they lost the plot and saw their 4-0 lead trimmed to just a goal after Cole Sillinger chipped a shot under the bar on the power play. That would be as close as the determined visitors would get as the Lightning righted the ship in time and Brayden Point capped things off with an empty-net goal to provide the 5-3 final score.
With the memories of the wild 7-6 overtime loss to Columbus last month still fresh in their heads, the Lightning came out and dominated the first two periods of play, building a 4-0 lead and controlling the action with an impressive 81.25% of the high-danger chances and a 25-14 edge in shots.
An unlikely source kicked off the scoring as Luke Glendening tipped home a floating shot from Nick Perbix just three minutes into the game. While the period ended with that score, it could have been much more lopsided if it hadn’t been for the play of Jet Greaves, who finished the game with 27 saves. In the first he made a sensational awareness save on a breakaway by Nick Paul. Greaves was able to get a skate on Paul’s backhand attempt, and then smothered the puck behind him on the goal line. He followed that up with back-to-back quality stops on Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov.
It looked like the Bolts put the game away in the second period as doubled their lead 90 seconds into the middle frame. Paul wouldn’t be denied as he stepped around two Blue Jackets and ripped a shot past Greaves. The Blue Jackets did push back a little following the goal, aided by a power play when Conor Geekie was sent to the box for kneeing Dante Fabbro.
The Bolts killed off the penalty, and had a golden opportunity as Geekie broke out of the box on a breakaway, but Greaves made another key save. A few minutes later, Paul would pick up an assist as he intercepted a pass in his own zone and lugged the puck down the ice. He dropped the pass to Jake Guentzel who saw his first shot turned aside by Greaves. Gunetzel stayed with the play and was able to put the rebound home to run his goal-scoring streak to seven games in a row, one off the franchise record set by Brian Bradley.
Cole Sillinger took umbrage to Geekie’s hit earlier in the period and jumped the rookie along the boards. After a big pile-up the Lightning emerged with a five-minute power play. For most of it, they looked uninspired, but Mitchell Chaffee ripped home a feed from Nick Paul to extend the lead to 4-0.
“He was the best player on the ice for us tonight, from start to finish,” Coach Cooper said about Paul, who finished with three points on the night.
Shorthanded to start the third period, the Lightning killed off the penalty, and one that followed quickly after. Despite keeping the Blue Jackets off the board, it seemed that the Bolts lost their footing a bit and Columbus built up a 11-1 edge in shots. Eventually, those shots started to go in.
Mikael Pyythia started the three-goals-in-seven-minutes barrage when he finished off a nice feed from Sean Kuraly, who gained possession of the puck after Victor Hedman, back in action after missing a few games, lost the handle on the puck. Another turnover, combined with an ill-timed line change, led to a three-on-one for Columbus that Adam Fantilli finished off. Things got really tight after Sillinger picked up his sixth goal of the season as Columbus converted on their fifth power play opportunity on the night. The Lightning pressing for a fifth goal despite being up by four helped lead to the change in momentum per the head coach,
“We screwed around on a regroup, turned it over and it’s in the net. Screwed around on a rush. We didn’t need the fifth goal, but we played for the fifth goal. [To] take as many penalties as we did, especially in the third. We had to kill two-and-a-half penalties in the third, eventually they’re going to get one.”
With plenty of time left on the clock, the Lightning were able to staunch the bleeding a bit, with the fourth line providing an important shift that shifted the play on the ice away from their net. With Greaves on the bench with over two minutes to go, the top line connected on a nice passing play that led to Point’s empty-net goal.
Vasilevskiy, who was celebrated for his 500 career games prior to the puck being dropped, was solid in net, stopping 28 of 31 shots to pick up his 14th win of the season and the 307th of his career.
While it wasn’t as pretty of a win as Coach Cooper would want, they got the job done and, and they’ll “wake up tomorrow with two points” as he said in the press conference.
The Goals
Luke Glendening (Nick Perbix, Emil Lilleberg) 1-0 Lightning
Nick Paul (unassisted) 2-0 Lightning
Jake Guentzel (Nick Paul) 3-0 Lightning
Mitchell Chaffee (Nick Paul, Brandon Hagel) Power Play, 4-0 Lightning
Mikael Pyyhtia (Sean Kuraly) 4-1 Lightning
Adam Fantilli (Kirill Marchenko ) 4-2 Lightning
Cole Sillinger (Dmitri Voronkov, Kirill Marchenko) Power Play, 4-3 Lightning
Brayden Point (Nikita Kucherov, Jake Guentzel) Empty Net, 5-3 Lightning
