Coming off of a six-day break, the Tampa Bay Lightning faced a tough test against a record-setting team in the Winnipeg Jets, who have lost just once in their first fifteen games. The Lightning passed that test as Jake Guentzel scored twice in the 4-1 victory. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 24-of-25 shots and picked up the 300th win of his career. By achieving that milestone in his 490th career game, he became the fastest goaltender to 300 in the history of the NHL.
Anthony Cirelli scored his 100th career goal while Victor Hedman picked up his 583rd assist, to move into sole possession of second place in franchise history. He is now six behind Marty St. Louis for the overall lead. Brandon Hagel scored his eighth goal of the season while playing in his 200th career game with the Bolts.
Special teams were a huge factor as the Lightning shut down the league’s best power play five times while holding them to just three shots on goal. Meanwhile, the Lightning recorded their first power play goal on home ice when Cirelli tipped home a shot from Hedman.
First Period:
18:08 – Pretty solid start right as the Lightning are doing a good job of keeping the puck in the zone. They’ve picked a few clearing passes off already and have 5 shots on Eric Comrie. One of the things they wanted to focus on was getting shots off quicker and not over-passing looking for the perfect play. So far, so good.
14:34 – The sharp “thup” of Vasy’s blocker signals the first shot on goal by Winnipeg. It was a sneaky tough save as there were plenty of bodies in front of him.
12:36 – Jakey Baby! Guentzel trails Nick Paul into the zone and snipes the back-pass from Paul to open the scoring. Ryan McDonagh starts the play with a really nice poke check at the Lightning’s blue line. Paul take it from there and sets up Guenztel with a tricky little behind-the-back pass. Jake Guentzel (Nick Paul, Ryan McDonagh) 1-0 Lightning
9:49 – The start was good, but the Bolts need to keep things going. One goal isn’t going to beat this Jets team. Just like that, Vasy has to make a nice paddle save on a crossing pass that almost ricocheted into danger. Credit to Darren Raddysh who ties up his opponent on the back side of the play, preventing a tap-in chance.
8:18 – The gloves and sticks come up as Vasilevskiy folds his body in on a shot. Since the goal, Winnipeg has found their footing a bit and narrowed the shot gap from 7-1 to 7-6. Most of the shots are coming from deep and no solid rebound chances are being allowed. For now.
7:12 – Emil Lilleberg introduces himself to Mark Schiefele with an open ice hit. Should it have been interference, yeah, probably. That was a clean hit, but a little late. No penalty on the play.
3:02 – Nikita Kucherov tries the Bergenheim Back-pass, but Dylan Demelo doesn’t fall for it and breaks up the pass.
0:55 – Mikey Eyssimont takes a hit from Nino Niederreiter and the Lightning forward is incensed. Eyssimont drops the gloves, but Nino declines the invite. That’ll result in an unsportsmanlike penalty for Eyssimont. Here comes the Jets’ lethal power play.
0:00 – Brandon Hagel dives out to poke the puck over the blueline. That will relieve the pressure of the power play for the rest of this period. After a little lull following the goal, they bounced back with a couple of really good looks (Nick Paul and Brandon Hagel) before going short-handed.
Second Period:
19:43 – Brandon Hagel with the quick shot on Comrie short-handed. That would have been a huge goal for the Lightning, but the Winnipeg netminder fights it off. A few moments later, Luke Glendening blocks one more shot to kill off the rest of the penalty.
16:50 – Hagel makes it two-nothing! Darren Raddysh hits the diagonal pass in the zone right on the tape and Hagel puts it under the bar. Brandon Hagel (Darren Raddysh, Emil Lilleberg) 2-0 Lightning.
15:53 – A power play goal at home! Victor Hedman has his head up and snaps one from the top of the slot. Cirelli and Guentzel with the screens in front, and that is a huge goal for the Lightning. Cirelli gets the credit for the goal, it’s the 100th of his career, and seemingly the 100th one he’s scored from the crease. They have been working on getting those types of shots on net during their recent practice sessions, so it’s good to see it pay off. Anthony Cirelli (Victor Hedman, Nikita Kucherov) Power Play, 3-0 Lightning
13:06 – Winnipeg gets one back. The Lightning have solid coverage in their zone, but Adam Lowry deflects a shot from the point and Vasy is moving the wrong way as the puck goes in the net. Adam Lowry (Colin Miller, Haydn Fleury) 3-1 Lightning
11:53 – Erik Cernak is in the box for tripping as he takes out Kyle Connor while sliding across the ice. Vasilevskiy with a really nice pad save on Cole Perfetti right before that. They have to kill this off, and then get back to putting the pressure on Winnipeg.
6:37 – The Lightning aren’t necessarily getting pinned in their own zone, but much of the action is in their end right now. They’ve been able to clear some pucks out, and are in really good position to prevent dangerous chances, but they have to start pushing the offense again. Just like that, Zemgus Girgensons feeds Mitchell Chaffee in front of the net for a prime chance. Comrie makes the stop and lies on the puck to stop play.
5:01 – Vasilevskiy makes a save on Nikolaj Ehlers, isn’t sure where the puck is, and drops to the ice. The puck comes flying out as his knocks it out of danger with his blocker. Nice to see a puck trickle away from the goal line for a change.
2:53 – With the 11 forward rotation, Gage Goncalves sees some ice time with Cirelli and Hagel. That’s an interesting combination right there that could help the rookie. On that shift, Cernak takes a turn at knocking Scheifele to the ice.
0:54 – Scheifele with a little payback as he hits Erik Cernak from behind near the boards, and Drago is not happy with the hit. Following the face-off, Hagel draws a hooking call on Cole Perfetti. Another power play for the Lightning.
0:08 – Eric Comrie with the save of the night as he robs Cirelli from the slot on a vicious one-timer. Tony Two Goals got all of that one, but can’t find the back of the net.
Third Period:
18:30 – This power play isn’t going as well as the first one did, but the entry from Conor Geekie was really nice. He hit the zone with speed and then passed it to himself along the boards. He was then able to send it around behind the net.
15:58 – Nice play by Glendening at the blue line to turn the puck over, but he has his stick taken out of his hands as he tries to get around the defender (no call). He’s knocked to the ice as he heads to the bench (no call).
13:04 – The Bolts are doing a really good job of stopping the play at their own blue line, but haven’t been able to connect through the neutral zone to set up their transition game. So far, no shots on net. Nick Paul had a chance, but he tried to pull the puck between his legs and hit his own skate. A self-block if you will.
12:18 – We have a tipping point in the game. Jake Guentzel heads off for tripping and the Jets power play is back on the ice. A goal for them here, and the next ten minutes will be a little more stressful.
9:43 – The Lightning pass the test as they kill off the penalty. Now they have to make Winnipeg work a little more in their own zone. There hasn’t been much of a forecheck over the second half of the game for the Bolts, so it would be nice to see them get that going.
8:48 – Vasilevskiy is called for tripping as Ehlers makes contact with the goaltender. That’s…a call. The penalty killers are back to work, and the crowd will absolutely lose it if Winnipeg scores here.
6:19 – Back to a Lightning power play as Niederreiter hooks down Kucherov along the boards. He’s about as happy at that call as Coach Cooper was with the Vasilevskiy call. Two big minutes with an extra skate for the Lightning, and a chance to put this game out of reach.
4:45 – An exciting sequence as Nikita Kucherov is robbed by Comrie and then Kyle Connor walks Darren Raddysh, but Vasilevskiy stops the shot. Comrie has kept this game close with big stops on Cirelli at the end of the second period, and then Kucherov on that sequence.
0:49 – Vasilevskiy sees a chance and takes it. With the Winnipeg net empty, Vasy tees it up, but his attempt is knocked down by a high stick. The Jets will take their time out now.
0:20 – There is the dagger! Cernak airmails one from his own zone that goes wide of the net, but Hagel negates the icing (and ties up the Jet player) allowing Jake Guentzel to put it into the empty net. Jake Guentzel (unassisted) Empty Net, 4-1 Lightning
The Charts:
Warm-Ups
The Kid Line is together as Goncalves and Chaffee will flank Geekie. The Bolts are going 11/7.
Pregame #TBLightning line rushes Hagel-Cirelli-Kucherov Guentzel-Paul-Raddysh (7th defenseman) Goncalves-Geekie-Chaffee Girgensons-Glendening-Eyssimont Pregame #GoBolts D pairings Hedman-Moser McDonagh-Cernak Lilleberg-Perbix Vasilevskiy Johansson
— Lightning Insider (@erikerlendsson.bsky.social) November 14, 2024 at 6:36 PM
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Morning Skate:
The lines, per Gabby Shirley, from the morning skate:
Brandon Hagel – Anthony Cirelli – Nikita Kucherov
Jake Guentzel – Nick Paul – Cam Atkinson
Gage Goncalves – Conor Geekie – Mitchell Chaffee
Zemgus Girgensons – Luke Glendening – Mikey Eyssimont
Victor Hedman – JJ Moser
Ryan McDonagh – Erik Cernak
Emil Lilleberg – Nick Perbix/Darren Raddysh
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Per Gabby, the Lightning are going to go with an 11/7 rotation tonight, so figure either Goncalves or Atkinson are going to be out for tonight. Goncalves was taking shifts with the second power play unit at practice, so take that for what it’s worth. While Andrei Vasilevskiy didn’t participate in the morning skate, he is scheduled to play tonight.
On the other side of the ice:
Some notes from the Lightning:
- Brandon Hagel is at 97 goals in his career, and will be skating in his 200th game with the Lightning tonight.
- It’s another shot at 300 for Andrei Vasilevskiy as he still sits at 299 career wins.
- Anthony Cirelli is one goal away from 100.
- Victor Hedman’s next assist will move him into sole possession of second place in franchise history.
- The Lightning are 49-36-14 all-time against the Jets.
Coach Cooper’s pre-game media scrum:
