In an entertaining game, Jake Guentzel’s conversion in the skills competition proved to be the difference as the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Anaheim Ducks 4-3 in a shootout. With a lot of open ice, both teams were eager to create offense as the teams combined for 74 scoring chances. Andrei Vasilevskiy picked up the victory in his 501st start as stopped 34 shots. Lukas Dostal was equal to the task with 32 saves, including 10 short-handed, as the Lightning went 2-for-5 on the power play.
Speaking of short-handed, the Bolts played the majority of the game without defenseman Erik Cernak, who took an awkward spill into the boards early in the first period. Victor Hedman logged 28:23 of ice time while Ryan McDonagh was at 26:18 and Emil Lilleberg at 21:48.
With first periods having been an issue of late for the Lightning, they wanted a quick start to the game, and hopefully a lead at some point. They got the start they wanted with Mikey Eyssimont almost sneaking a shot over Lukas Dostal’s left pad, and Jake Guentzel drawing a penalty on the forecheck. Unfortunately, the power play didn’t connect despite a prime opportunity for Mitchell Chaffee from the slot.
Just after the power play expired, the luck of the bouncing puck went against the Bolts. The Ducks brought the puck into the zone and Nick Perbix blocked Ryan Strome’s initial shot, but the puck found Troy Terry’s stick/skate and deflected past Andrei Vasilevskiy who tried to contort himself back to stop the puck, but couldn’t quite stretch out far enough.
It looked like the puck luck would continue to go against them as Brandon Hagel followed his own rebound, but a sprawled-out Dostal got just enough of the shot to send it through the crease and wide. Vasilevskiy matched the stop with one of his own as he reached out the big trapper to snare a sharp shot out of the air.
Down by one, the Lightning were shorthanded when Zemgus Girgensons was whistled for holding, but they killed the penalty confidently. Girgensons redeemed himself a bit later by drawing a call himself, which sent the Bolts on their second power play. Despite some looks, time was winding down when Hagel and Anthony Cirelli were able to team up down low for a cross-crease pass that Cirelli tapped home to tie the game. Victor Hedman picked up the secondary assist, the 600th assist of his career, and he became the first Lightning player to hit that milestone.
Late in the period, Brayden Point worked around Radko Gudas and beat Dostal with a backhand that clanged off of the far post. That pretty much finished off one of the better first periods of late for the Lightning.
The second period, well, my friends, that was just fun hockey. Anaheim thought it was a good idea to take a couple of penalties and it cost them as Nikita Kucherov zipped a pass across to Jake Guentzel. Jake’s first shot was stopped by Dostal, but the puck sat in the crease behind him and Guentzel poked it home.
Tampa Bay was skating pretty well and Anaheim was letting them. With the the 2-1 lead it felt like another goal would put this out of reach, but the Bolts couldn’t quite find it. Anaheim picked up the physical play a bit and finally established a bit of a forecheck. Mason McTavish stripped Darren Raddysh of the puck behind the Lightning net and set up Leo Carlsson, who snapped a shot past Vasilevskiy to tie things up at two goals.
Gudas (who had been on the wrong end of one-on-one rushes by both Point and Connor Geekie) extracted some revenge by goading Hagel into a penalty. The four-on-four was absolutely chaotic. Brayden Point cut in front of the net and pulled to shoot the puck opposite the flow of play, but was just wide. That led to Anaheim rushing down to the other end of the ice and Vasilevskiy going full extension to make a stop.
The play sped back down to the Anaheim end and Point stickhandled Dostal out of position, but it appeared his shot was kept out by the skates of Owen Zellweger right on the goal line, so the play went back down to the other end of the ice. Eventually, the goal horn sounded and stopped play. Point’s attempt had been reviewed and it was clearly over the goal line before Zellweger stopped it.
Throughout their recent run of play, there haven’t been many third-period goals to protect, so forgive the Bolts if they found themselves in uncharted waters. Early in the period, they took a penalty, which is never what you want to do with a one-goal lead, but it was the Lightning that almost found the back of the net. Hagel had a short-handed breakaway. Luke Glendening had a good look, but was on his backhand, which made the save a little easier for Dostal. In the end, they outshot the Ducks 4-1 on the power play.
As the period progressed, it looked like Dostal’s play shorthanded might be the difference. The Ducks finally got a forecheck established and it led to Robby Fabbri tipping a shot past Vasilevskiy to tie the game. That would be the end of the scoring as both goaltenders continued to put on a show.
In overtime, the crossbar came into play as Cutter Gauthier chipped it off the iron behind Vasy. Neither team could find the winner so it went to the shootout where Jake Guentzel slid one through the five-hole and Vasilevskiy stopped all three attempts from Anaheim.
The Goals
Troy Terry (Ryan Strome, Brian Dumolin) 1-0 Ducks
Anthony Cirelli (Brandon Hagel, Victor Hedman) Power Play, 1-1
Jake Guentzel (Nikita Kucherov, Darren Raddysh), Power Play, 2-1 Lightning
Leo Carlsson (Mason McTavish) 2-2
Brayden Point (Nikita Kucherov, Nick Perbix) 3-2 Lightning
Robby Fabbri (Jacob Trouba, Pavel Mintyukov) 3-3
The Charts
