Was it a perfect win for the Tampa Bay Lightning? No, but they took care of business as they helped Vancouver get one step closer to the best odds in the draft lottery downing the Canucks, 6-2. Six different players scored for the Lightning and Nikita Kucherov posted a three-point night in the victory. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 19-of-21 for the victory.
There were some struggles along the way as Vancouver was able to pin them in the zone for stretches at times. The passing wasn’t as crisp as it needed to be for the Lightning, and against a better team there might have been a different outcome. However, despite the occasional failed clears, they still dominated things as they limited the Canucks to just four high-danger chances over the first two periods.
Brandon Hagel had a goal and an assist to eclipse the 300-point mark with the Lightning. He was the third fastest Lightning player to do it as it took him only 329 games. Steven Stamkos (302) and Brian Bradley (328) were the only ones that did it faster. Meanwhile, Hagel’s linemate, Nikita Kucherov, crept within a point of Connor McDavid for the league lead in points.
First Period
It wasn’t quite the dominating period the Bolts started with against Seattle, but they slowly started to find their game as the minutes ticked along. Vancouver was doing a good job of moving the puck quickly, which negated the Lightning’s forecheck for the most part early in the game.
Part of Vancouver’s plan of attack was to fly their forwards from the zone the moment they had control of the puck and try to catch the Lightning with numbers. They had a couple of rushes that produced chances, but not shots on goal. Jake DeBrusk was able to slip into a seam on a rush, but his chip-deflection found the post instead of the back of the net.
Tampa Bay found their forecheck midway through the period and strung together three shifts together that kept Vancouver pinned in the zone, but Kevin Lankinen was solid, turning aside seven shots during the sequence.
A J.J. Moser tripping call eased the pressure for a bit, but Vancouver struggled to get a quality shot on goal. Almost immediately after the penalty was over, the Bolts were back in the zone and finally on the scoreboard. A point shot from Charle-Edouard D’Astous was deflected by Jake Guentzel, and the visitors were up 1-0.
Jake Guentzel [30] (Charle-Edouard D’Astous, Ryan McDonagh) 1-0 Lightning
Vancouver really had no answer for the Point line as the trio had a 12-0 edge in shot attempts and 6-0 edge in scoring chances.
Second Period
The numbers indicated that the Lightning probably should have had another goal in the first period, but Lankinen’s play kept it a one-goal game. That didn’t last for long in the middle frame as the Bolts scored three times before the first TV timeout.
Darren Raddysh [18] (Nikita Kucherov, Anthony Cirelli) 2-0 Lightning
Yanni Gourde [9] (Darren Raddysh, Pontus Holmberg) 3-0 Lightning
Nikita Kucherov [38] (Erik Cernak, Anthony Cirelli) 4-0 Lightning
Oddly enough, during that deluge of goals, the best chance didn’t go in. Brandon Hagel found himself staring at open net, but his shot found Lankinen’s glove as the goaltender drove back across the crease to make the save.
With his team a bit dazed, Adam Foote called a time-out to settle them down a little. It seemed to work as Vancouver strung some solid shifts together. They snapped Vasilevskiy’s shut-out bid when a turnover by the Bolts in the offensive zone led to a rush. Off the rush, Liam Ohgren found some space in the slot and snapped a shot past Vasilevskiy.
Liam Ohgren [7] (Brock Boeser, Marco Rossi) 4-1 Lightning
The goal seemed to wake the Lightning defense up and they righted the ship. It didn’t help that they were down a defenseman as Victor Hedman didn’t take a shift in the middle frame. Late in the period Erik Cernak took a puck right above the top of his skate/ankle area as he went down to block a shot. It took a minute for him to be able to get off of the ice, but he returned to play to help kill off a late Vancouver power play.
Third Period
The Lightning killed off the rest of the penalty and had a nice start to the period which included an odd-skater rush that Lankinen denied. From there, well, they struggled a bit. Vancouver stepped up their forecheck and caused some issues for the Lightning. D’Astous in particular was harassed into a turnover on a shift, and then a bad bounce befuddled Darren Raddysh.
Vasilevskiy made a nice glove save on Marco Rossi, but Linus Karlsson was there to bat the rebound into the net.
Linus Karlsson [13] (Marco Rossi) 4-2 Lightning
With the score getting interesting, it was the Anthony Cirelli line that breathed some calm back into the game. They were able to cycle the puck around the boards with Kucherov making a nice play to keep the puck when he was double-teamed. That started a chain of passing that ended when Brandon Hagel found his center-man in the slot and Cirelli deflected it
home to reestablish the three-goal lead just 32 seconds after the Vancouver goal.
Anthony Cirelli [17] (Brandon Hagel, Erik Cernak) 5-2 Lightning
Those three liked scoring so much that they did it again. This time they did it off of the rush as Nikita Kucherov had an entry pass that got tangled in the defender’s skates. It popped out behind him and Brandon Hagel took the puck. Then he shot the puck. It was that simple as he snuck it inside the far post.
Brandon Hagel [32] (Nikita Kucherov, J.J. Moser) 6-2 Lightning
Both teams seemed content to play out the rest of the game. The Lightning had a late power play that generated a couple of chances, but no goals.
The Bolts picked up two important points because they got absolutely no help from the teams around them. The Bruins, Senators, Blue Jackets, and Sabres all won. About the only positive result was Detroit beating Montreal in regulation. At least it wasn’t a three-point game.
On to Edmonton to try and make it three in a row.
