We’ve often heard Coach Jon Cooper bemoan the fact that it’s hard to win in this league when a team doesn’t play an entire 60 minutes of hockey. It’s hard, but not impossible. The Tampa Bay Lightning were on the wrong side of play for much of the night, but a three-goal in 1:45 of ice time outburst, coupled with a 39-save performance by Andrei Vasilevskiy led them to a 5-1 victory against the New York Rangers.
Brayden Point had two power play goals and three points while Nikita Kucherov moved back into a tie with Nathan MacKinnon at the top of the points race with three points of his own. Jake Guentzel completed the trifecta of three-point performances with three assists. Yanni Gourde scored his first goal since returning to the Lightning and now has 11 points in 16 games since the deadline.
If you had the Rangers getting booed off the ice at the end of the first period after the way they played the first ten minutes, we would also like you to share any stock tips you might have. The Rangers came out and dictated the pace of play for the first half of period that was unencumbered by many whistles. For most of that stretch the Lightning were a bit behind the play, and less than efficient with their zone clears.
However, what is true of the first half of a period isn’t necessarily true for the entire twenty minutes, and it was a Rangers power play that turned the tide. New York racked up a quick four shots with the extra skater, and Vasilevskiy had to bat a floating puck out of the air to keep things scoreless. As the advantage waned, the Lightning took over with Brandon Hagel ringing the iron on a nice cut-back shot.
While the puck didn’t go in, the other half of Hagel’s brain, Anthony Cirelli, drew a penalty to negate the remainder of the power play. New York had one more chance, but the Lightning were able to leave the zone with momentum and streaked down the ice. Kucherov fed Brayden Point, who waited until the last possible moment to thread it back to Kucherov who tapped it into an empty net.
That sparked a run of three goals in 1:45 of ice time. Yanni Gourde finally put a notch in the goal column as he swept home a puck in front of the net to make it 2-0. Back on the power play it was Brayden Point cresting the 40-goal mark as he jammed home an uncovered puck in the crease. In less time than it takes a penny to fall from the top of the Empire State Building, the home team was staring at a huge deficit despite having an 11-5 edge in shots on goal.
The second half of the period belonged mostly to the Lightning as they moved the puck through the neutral zone and the offensive zone crisply. There was a lot more movement in their offensive game then we’ve seen of late, and it did trouble the Rangers for a spell. It also led to a chorus of boos raining down from the rafters of the World’s Most Famous Arena.
Maybe it was the 3-0 lead, but the second period of the game was not the Lightning’s finest hour. The shutout was quickly surrendered when Mika Zibanejad deflected a shot from the slot on the power play. Hey, they had to score with the extra skater at some point. With the exception of an occasional foray into the Rangers zone, the majority of the play was in the Lightning zone.
New York managed 18 shots on goal and 15 scoring chances. The Lightning managed to watch Andrei Vasilevskiy do his thing as he thwarted chance after chance throughout the 20 minutes. He was at his absolute efficient best at the end of the period as he turned aside three shots, all by Artemi Panarin, in the final minute of play.
“Too much time in our own zone,” is how Ryan McDonagh described the play before noting that that the Lightning needed to simplify their game a bit and “flip to speed”. It’s an interesting turn of phrase and concept. Instead of stringing passes together, the Lightning would look to flip the puck out of their zone and skate onto it with speed through the neutral zone.
Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped Alexis Lafrienierre on a backside shot with the glove.
Andrei Vasilevskiy (and the crossbar) stopped Mika Zibanejad on a short-handed breakaway.
Go ahead, take your pick as to the biggest save in the third period. After seeing a one-goal, third-period lead evaporate against Buffalo, the Lightning came out determined to not let it happen again. After a rough start to the period, they started to control the puck a little more. It didn’t lead to a goal, but it led to New York taking a couple of penalties.
After the first one was, well, not great (see above about the save on Zibanejad), the Bolts had a little more flow on their second opportunity. It ended with Guentzel finding Point on the back door for his second goal of the night. Brandon Hagel added an empty-netter, because that’s what he does, and the Lightning had the victory.
The Bolts end their last road trip of the season with a 2-1-1 run to pull within two points of Toronto, setting up a big game on Wednesday.
The Goals
Nikita Kucherov (Brayden Point, Jake Guentzel) Power Play, 1-0 Lightning
Yanni Gourde (Gage Goncalves, Victor Hedman) 2-0 Lightning
Brayden Point (Jake Guentzel, Nikita Kucherov) Power Play, 3-0 Lightning
Mika Zibanejad (Artemi Panarin, J.T. Miller) Power Play, 3-1 Lightning
Brayden Point (Jake Guentzel, Nikita Kucherov) Power Play, 4-1 Lightning
Brandon Hagel (Ryan McDonagh) Empty Net, 5-1 Lightning
The Charts
#NHL GameScore Impact Card for Tampa Bay Lightning on 2025-04-07 #GoBolts
— HockeyStatCards (@hockeystatcards.com) April 7, 2025 at 9:41 PM
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