The Tampa Bay Lightning have, at times, struggled away from the salty breezes coming off of the Gulf of Mexico. On Tuesday, they had no problem on the road as they put together one of their most methodical road efforts on the way to a 4-1 victory over the New York Islanders. Nikita Kucherov added two more assists to reclaim the scoring lead in the NHL while Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 28-of-29 shots for the win.
It was another four-goal performance for the Lightning, and while those types of goals totals are usually the result of a ton of shots and scoring chances, tonight’s victory was more of a spatial victory. They generated just 11 high-danger chances on the night, but seemingly won every physical battle along the walls. New York struggled to get the puck up the ice cleanly for much of the night, and unless it was Bo Horvat, there wasn’t much open ice in the offensive zone once they managed to get into the Lightning zone.
Against a team that was desperately trying to cling to its playoff life, the Lightning simply didn’t let them do what they wanted to do. It started with the Lightning controlling the puck in the Islanders zone which led to a tip-in goal by Oliver Bjorkstrand.
The aforementioned Horvat, who had a breakaway stopped by Vasilevskiy earlier in the period, sniped one over the goalie’s shoulder on a short-handed breakaway to tie the game. Even with the game tied after one period, it felt like the Lightning were in control of the game.
Now, technically, all goals count the same. However, at times, some goals seem more important than others. None more so than Jake Guentzel’s tally in the second period. The Lightning were a little careless with the penalties and the Islanders had back-to-back power plays, that generated little in the way of danger. Shortly after, the Lightning had a odd-man rush up the ice that looked like it fizzled out when Brayden Point’s pass was out of Kucherov’s reach.
Instead, Kucherov glided into the corner, and with two Islanders bearing down on him, whipped a pass to the front of the net where Guentzel was there to tap it past Ilya Sorokin. It was a just another example of Kucherov’s expert vision on the ice. He read the play perfectly, timed it just right, and then put the puck right where it needed to be. For the Islanders’ it was a back-breaker.
To their credit, New York kept trying, but just couldn’t get it going. On one of their rare chances in the second period, Kyle Palmieri had what appeared to be a clean look behind the Lightning defense, but J.J. Moser lifted his stick in time on the back-check and the momentum went back to the Lightning. Kucherov was there again, niftily staying onside and then feeding Victor Hedman in the slot. The captain finished it off with a nice snap-shot to make it 3-1.
The Lightning defense did their job down the stretch, allowing just two shots on goal and one high-danger chance at 5v5 in the third period. They added a few more chances at 4v4 after Yanni Gourde and Casey Cizikas had a scrap in the third period, but at no point did it feel like the Bolts were going to cough up the lead. Nick Paul cleaned it up with an empty-net goal to make it 4-1.
With the victory, the Lightning crept a little closer to a playoff spot. Montreal and Columbus both won to deny them a chance at clinching, but they moved a little closer. They also held onto second place in the division outright as Florida could only muster one point in their overtime loss to the Canadiens. More importantly they set the tone of what they are capable of doing on the road. They’re going to have to duplicate the effort against an Ottawa team that has been playing really well of late.
The Goals
Oliver Bjorkstrand (Darren Raddysh, Brayden Point) 1-0 Lightning
Bo Horvat (Ryan Pulock) Short-handed 1-1
Jake Guentzel (Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point) 2-1 Lightning
Victor Hedman (Nikita Kucherov, Jake Guentzel) 3-1 Lightning
Nick Paul (Anthony Cirelli, Erik Cernak) Empty-Net, 4-1 Lightning
