Over the last two seasons there is a fun little stat for the Tampa Bay Lightning. Heading into Sunday’s game against the Seattle Kraken, the Bolts were 12-0 when Luke Glendening found the back of the net. They made it a baker’s dozen after Glendening’s third-period goal helped them pull off a 4-1 victory in their return from the 4 Nations Face-Off.
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 36 saves while Brandon Hagel had a goal and an assist. Nikita Kucherov scored 26th goal of the season to run his home points streak to 12 games while Nick Paul closed the game out with his 17th of the year. J.J. Moser returned to action and played 22:08 in his first game since the middle of December. He dished out three hits and had four shot attempts with one getting on net.
It was a relatively quiet first period for both teams. Seattle looked a little tired after their 2-1 win over Florida on Saturday, and the Lightning were solid, but rusty, especially in the offensive zone. They lacked the clean finishing we normally see from them as pucks rolled off of sticks and passes were in skates instead of on the stick.
Both goalies were on their game and rookie Aleš Stezka can tell his grand kids that his first NHL save came off of the stick of Hall-of-Famer Nikita Kucherov. Kucherov and his usual cohorts were the Lightning’s best line in the first period with Jake Guentzel having the best look from the left circle, but his one-timer went wide.
Zemgus Girgensons, centering the third line, had a nice look on the rush after Ryan McDonagh created a neutral zone turnover, but the shot went off of the far post. Stezka, who is a big goaltender at 6’4″, 190 lbs., was up to the task, especially midway through the period when the Lightning picked up the pace a little. He had a really nice save on Guentzel, moving cleanly across his crease, after Kucherov slid a pass to his linemate from the slot.
At the other end the Bolts were pretty solid in their own zone for most of the period, limiting Seattle to the occasional one-shot-and-done foray. Vasilevskiy’s best save came off of a rush from Jared McCann that he blockered aside. With J.J. Moser back on the top pairing, the defense didn’t allow much from in front of the net for the Kraken.
The middle frame mostly belonged to Seattle, at least in regards to territorial battle. Seattle doubled up the Lightning in shots, and had six more scoring chances (16-10). Yes, they were aided by a power play (more on that in a minute), but the Lightning spent quite a bit of time in their zone in that period.
One thing they were able to do was keep the ice in front of Vasilevskiy clean. There wasn’t a lot of traffic in front of the goaltender, so even though the Kraken were getting shots off from the high slot, Vasy had no problem seeing them and stopping them. His best came off a shot from Adam Larsson that The Big Cat was at full extension to snag out of the air.
At the other end of the ice, the Bolts kissed the post twice with shots. First it was Girgensons (again) and then later in the period, Brayden Point found the iron as well after he had stretched Stezka out of the crease. It seemed like the puck gods were turning their backs on them once again.
Now, back to that power play for the Kraken. With Erik Cernak in the penalty box for a trip, Seattle was fighting for a puck along the boards. Ryan McDonagh was able to flip it out to center ice where Brandon Hagel skated onto the puck. With a forward, Oliver Bjorkstrand, as his only competition, Hagel fought him off with one hand, sold that he was going to spin to the center of the ice, and then went back to his left and backhanded a shot through the five hole for the goal.
With a one-goal lead and twenty minutes to play, the Lighting went out and played their best period of the night. Was there a little stretch where the Kraken pinned the Lightning in their own end? Yes, but it was an exception and not the rule for the period. It also came after most of the players on the ice assumed a whistle was going to be blown.
Erik Cernak threw a big hit on a Kraken forward that Brandon Tanev took exception to. The two locked up, and Cernak even tried to throw a punch, but the officials didn’t stop play. Vasilevskiy had to make a big save on Jayden Schwartz. The Bolts were a little disjointed and the Kraken kept them pinned back. Nothing came out of it, though as they bent but didn’t break.
Shortly after, the dam that was Aleš Stezka finally cracked a little. Brayden Point won an offensive zone face-off and Nikita Kucherov whipped it past the rookie goaltender to give the Lightning some breathing room. Less than two minutes later, Luke Glendening tipped home a centering feed from Cameron Atkinson to extend the lead to 3-0.
Credit to Seattle for not folding. They finally got some traffic in front of Vasilevskiy and Shane Wright tipped home a shot from Brandon Montour to make it 3-1 with just under five minutes to go. Disco Dan Bylsma went full Jon Cooper and pulled Stezka shortly after the goal. It looked like the Lightning would make them pay instantly as Kucherov gunned a one-timer into the empty net.
Wait. Not so fast.
Kucherov was slightly off-side on the play and Seattle caught it. The goal was eased from history and play continued. With the extra skater the Kraken had their second bout of sustained pressure. For the first time all night, the post helped the Lightning. A shot from Jared McCann caught the iron and ricocheted to Anthony Cirelli. He found his buddy Brandon Hagel with an outlet pass, who then fed it to an open Nick Paul (who was onside). Paul put it home to seal the game.
With the win, the Lightning ran their points streak to seven games and their winning streak to five.
The Lines
Jake Guentzel – Brayden Point – Nikita Kucherov
Brandon Hagel – Anthony Cirelli – Nick Paul
Mitchell Chaffee – Zemgus Girgensons – Gage Goncalves
Mikey Eyssimont – Luke Glendening – Cameron Atkinson
Victor Hedman – J.J. Moser
Ryan McDonagh – Erik Cernak
Emil Lilleberg – Darren Raddysh
The Goals
Brandon Hagel (Ryan McDonagh, Emil Lilleberg) Short-handed, 1-0 Lightning
Nikita Kucherov (Brayden Point) 2-0 Lightning
Luke Glendening (Cameron Atkinson, Mikey Eyssimont) 3-0 Lightning
Shane Wright (Brandon Montour, Josh Mahaura) 3-1 Lightning
Nick Paul (Brandon Hagel, Anthony Cirelli) Empty Net, 4-1 Lightning
