Lightning’s special team prowess leads to 6-2 victory over Rangers

After a bit of a sluggish start to the game, the Tampa Bay Lightning used four special teams’ goals (two short-handed and two power-play tallies) to put a close game out of reach. Brayden Point had two goals and Nikita Kucherov had three points as the Lightning took down the New York Rangers, 6-2, for their eighth win in the month of December.

A familiar “Vasy’s better” chant rolled through the Amalie Arena stands as Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 42 shots while Igor Shesterkin was chased after allowing 5 goals on 14 shots. In his record-setting 1,083rd game in a Lightning uniform, Victor Hedman posted his 25th assist of the season. Conor Geekie returned to the line-up while Mikey Eyssimont was a healthy scratch.

It’s always interesting to see how long breaks affect different teams. No group of players needed a few days off more than the Rangers, while the Lightning would have happily kept playing right through Christmas considering the roll they were on prior to the break. New York, who had mustered only 12 total shots in their previous game, a 5-0 loss to New Jersey, came out with a shoot-first mentality, while the Lightning were a bit more passive with the puck. One thing that wasn’t passive in the first few minutes was the Lightning’s power play.

Sam Carrick was sent to the box for a needless trip, and Tampa Bay’s special team’s unit wasted little time in cashing in. It looked like Jake Guentzel would have the game-opening goal when a pass found him at the near post. It did handcuff him a bit, but it looked like he would be able to slip it past Shesterkin, but he couldn’t corral it in time.

So, the Bolts simply regrouped on their next rush and Brayden Point was able to enter the zone with speed and turned the corner on the defender (welcome back from injury, K’Andre Miller). Point saurcered a pass over to Nikita Kucherov, who chipped it into the net for his 16th goal of the season. Just 2:27 into the game and the Bolts had a 1-0 lead.

From there, the game went a little sideways. Tampa Bay had some zone time, in fact, a lot of zone time, but most of their attempts went through the crease or fizzled out before a shot was generated. In 20 minutes of play they were credited with just 14 shot attempts, 6 of which made it on goal. On the other hand, New York shot the puck when they had the puck, and they had it often, producing 30 shot attempts in the first 20 minutes.

Eventually, one of those shots was bound to go in, especially when it came off of the stick of Artemi Panarin. It was a nice play by the veteran as he played possum along the boards while Vincent Trocheck had the puck behind the goal line. Erik Cernak had an eye on him, but when the Lightning defenseman looked away to find the puck, Panarin scampered away from the boards, and was open for Trocheck’s pass. Panarin didn’t miss, and just like that it was tied at one goal a piece.

New York kept racking up the shots as they finished with 17 on net (they only had 12 in the entire game against New Jersey the last time they were on the ice), but a combination of strong play in front of the net and Andrei Vasilevskiy kept them from adding to their goal total. Meanwhile, the Lightning turned short-handed defense into offense when Ryan McDonagh led a rush down the ice. The Mack Truck called his own number and put a shot on net that Shesterkin couldn’t squeeze. The puck trickled over the goal line for McDonagh’s first goal of the season.

Second periods have been a struggle for the Lightning this season, but not on this night. Brayden Point doubled the lead at the 3:35 mark after he beat Shesterkin with some nifty stickhandling off of a Kucherov pass. Then the special teams continued their dominance of the game. Mika Zibanajed shanked a one-timer on the power play and Brandon Hagel pounced on the loose puck. Since Zibanajed was playing the point, there was no one behind him and Hagel led a two-on-one with Anthony Cirelli. Hagel’s pass found Cirelli’s stick and Tony Two Goals roofed it over the New York netminder.

Point picked up his second goal of the night three minutes later on the power play. The Rangers retreated into their defensive box to the point where Kucherov was able to walk almost to the crease before he passed it to Point, who didn’t get the best of shots off, but the puck bounced its way past Shesterkin, whose night ended after the goal.

The Lightning didn’t necessarily generate a lot more offense (although they doubled their shot output), but they did lock things down defensively, allowing just 8 total shots for the Rangers. New York was only able to create 2 high-danger chances at 5v5 as the Bolts took care of the puck and didn’t allow them much traction in the offensive zone.

The third period started with the Lightning on the power play, so of course the Rangers scored shorthanded as Trocheck scored off of the rush just 13 seconds into the period. New York built off of that goal and, much like they did in the first period, started piling up the shots, but not the goals.

Midway through the period, the penalties started piling up. With Reilly Smith already in the box for a hooking call, Will Borgen buried Brandon Hagel behind the net with a cross-check. Despite two solid shots from Hedman, the Lightning weren’t able to capitalize on the two-man advantage, and then found themselves short-handed when the Lightning captain tripped up Smith to prevent a breakaway.

With the penalty killed off, Nick Paul finally solved the Jonathan Quick riddle as he followed up his own rebound to rip one past the Rangers’ back-up to make it 6-2. While the Rangers were racking up the shots, the Lightning were piling up the goals.

Guentzel, who took a spill into the boards midway through the period wasn’t on the bench to finish the game.