This game could have gone off the rails for the Tampa Bay Lightning. With five wins in a row and a talented, but struggling Edmonton Oilers team looking for a victory by any means necessary, the Bolts were in danger of stumbling against a team desperate for a win. That worry lasted roughly half of a period. After Leon Draisaitl opened the scoring with a power play goal, the Lightning knocked off four straight goals to pick up the win.
Mikey Eyssimont tied it just 78 seconds later with his fifth goal of the season. Brandon Hagel gave them the lead they wouldn’t relinquish with his 28th of the season before Victor Hedman struck on a 5-on-3 power play to make it 3-1. Nick Paul killed off any hope of an Edmonton comeback as he finished off a nice passing play from Nikita Kucherov and Jake Guentzel.
Andrei Vasilevskiy picked up his 27th win of the season with 23 saves, including a spectacular split save on Matthew Savoie in the third period after the puck took a weird bounce off of the end glass. At the other end, Stuart Skinner kept the Oilers in the game for most of the night despite allowing four goals. He made point blank saves on Guentzel and Emil Lilleberg late in the second period to keep the deficit at two.
For the Lightning, it was one of their most complete games of the season as their forecheck gave Edmonton issues all night long. Not only did it lead to 54 shot attempts at 5v5, it forced Edmonton to work to retrieve the puck and move it up ice all night long. Connor McDavid is happy that he doesn’t have to see Anthony Cirelli any more as the Lightning forward was his shadow all night long. Cirelli logged 14:46 of ice time against McDavid at 5v5 and held him to no high-danger chances.
The entire Lightning team operated as a unit defensively, forcing the Oilers to attack through layers, which left them with little rhythm on the few occasions they made it into the Lightning zone with possession. The Bolts defense was active with their sticks, breaking up several cross-ice passes that could have troubled Vasilevskiy if they had made them though. The Bolts allowed just four high-danger chances at 5v5 on the night against a team featuring the league’s leading goal-scorer and the best player in the world. Not a bad night at all.
Most impressive was the way the Lightning finished off the game. That save Vasilevskiy made on Savoie came with 10:43 left in the third period. Not only was that the last shot Edmonton had on goal, it was the last shot attempt they had. Did the Nick Paul goal deflate the Oilers a little? Based on that stat, the answer is a resounding yes.
The 11/7 rotation seemed to pay off as well as the mixed up lines seemed to energize some of the bottom-six forwards. Mikey Eyssimont in particular was all over the ice as he led the team with six shots and eight shot attempts.
Tampa Bay will look to make it seven in a row on Thursday when Calgary comes into town to finish off the home-stand. Tonight’s win brought the Bolts within a point of second-place Florida with a game in hand.
The Goals
Leon Draisaitl (Connor McDavid, Evan Bouchard) Power Play, 1-0 Oilers
Mikey Eyssimont (Gage Goncalves) 1-1
Brandon Hagel (Zemgus Girgensons, Anthony Cirelli) 2-1 Lightning
Victor Hedman (Brayden Point, Nikita Kucherov) Power Play, 3-1 Lightning
Nick Paul (Jake Guentzel, Nikita Kucherov) 4-1 Lightning
The Charts
