It was another big night for Darren Raddysh as the Tampa Bay Lightning’s defenseman posted three points, including the game-winning goal in a 4-1 victory over the Winnipeg Jets as the Bolts closed out January with their 11th win of the month. It’s the most victories they’ve had in a month since they went 12-1-2 in February of 2019. It was a fast-paced game with a willing opponent in Winnipeg, but the Bolts built a 2-0 lead, then scored three minutes after the Jets had cut the lead to 2-1. From there they shut things down before Nikita Kucherov potted an empty-netter to make it a 4-1 final.
Winnipeg gave the Lightning their money’s worth for most of the night, especially early in the game. Andrei Vasilevskiy was strong in net yet again, stopping 22 of 23 chances, including several rush chances from Winnipeg. The Bolts struggled to get a forecheck going early in the game and the Jets were able to counter with speed to generate their chances.
Still, it was Lightning getting on the board first as Dominic James scored with just over five minutes left in the period. It was a big goal for the Bolts who were playing without Nikita Kucherov. The Lightning’s dynamic playmaker was briefly knocked out of the game when he collided with Logan Stanley was shaken up as he had to be helped to the bench.
The good news was that Kucherov was back on the ice for the second period. Even better, the Lightning doubled their lead when Raddysh uncorked a shot from the blueline that beat Conor Hellebuyck over the right pad and under the blocker. It was Raddysh’s 15th of the season as he starts to eye the 20-goal mark on the season.
Down two, Winnipeg started to drive play a little and were eventually rewarded when Kyle Connor deflected a shot from Dylan Samberg to beat a screened Vasilevskiy. Right after that goal, Vasilevskiy and Nick Paul combined to stop Tanner Pearson who had his sights on beating the goaltender on the far post as he was sent in alone on a two-on-one.
The stop proved key as Yanni Gourde restored the two-goal lead a few shifts later as he shuffled an awkward shot from the slot past Hellebuyck on a delayed penalty. It wasn’t a blast, and Hellebuyck was beside himself after letting it in. Kucherov picked up the assist to run his point streak to seven games.
As has been the case for the Lightning over the past 20 games or so, the Bolts locked things down in the third period. Winnipeg had a power play fairly early in the period where they failed to generate a lot of offense, and on the whole Tampa Bay only allowed three high-danger chances. Nikita Kucherov ended any hope of a comeback for the road team when he put the puck in the empty net for his 27th goal of the season and 31st point in the month of January. It’s the third 30-point month of his career, tying him with Conor McDavid for the most among active players.
The game marked the return of Ryan McDonagh to the line-up and he had a McDonagh-like type of game. He played 20:37 and logged three shots as well as three blocked shots. Paired up with Erik Cernak they were deployed against the Cole Perfetti line for much of the night. It wasn’t a dominating night for them as the Lightning were outchanced while the pair was on the ice (5-3), but they didn’t allow a goal. McDonagh also led all Lightning skaters with 2:13 of short-handed time.
The Bolts will be off until Sunday when they host the Boston Bruins at Raymond James Stadium.
