The majority of the Tampa Bay Lightning’s hot start has come against top flight competition. The Bolts have beaten the defending Stanley Cup champions twice, but to be a top flight team you have to beat the teams you are expected to. Tampa Bay did that on Tuesday night. It was a fairly close game between the Bolts and the Carolina Hurricanes, but the Bolts scored 3 times in the final 3 minutes to pull away and make it a 5-1 victory.
The Bolts were a hot team coming in to face a struggling team in Carolina, but it didn’t look that way for parts of the 1st period. Tampa Bay had to kill Carolina penalties twice in the 1st half of the period. Vasilevskiy made his fair share of saves, but Dan Girardi’s poke check preventing a Carolina breakaway on the 2nd power play was probably the most vital play in keeping the Canes off the board. Tampa Bay finally got their 1st chance on the power play late in the period and they took advantage. The cardiac kids came through again as Tyler Johnson scored with just 35 seconds left on the clock to give the Bolts the lead after 1.
Things looked a lot like the 1st for the Bolts early in the 2nd period. Victor Hedman was sent to the box less than a minute into the period. That forced Tampa Bay to go on another early PK. That unit was up to the task yet again to make Carolina 0-3 for the night on the power play. Near the halfway mark of the period one of the hottest Bolts struck again. Rookie, Mikhail Sergachev scored for the 3rd straight game to give the Lightning a bit more breathing room at 2-0. There was a 4-on-4 situation to thwart off late in the period, but Vasilevskiy saved all 11 shots he faced in the frame.
The Bolts picked up another penalty in the 1st minute of a period when Steven Stamkos was called for interference 33 seconds in. Carolina couldn’t score on that power play, but shortly after Jacob Slavin’s 2nd goal of the year made it a 2-1 game early in the period. Neither team could add on and Carolina decided to go to an empty net early. The Bolts made them play. Vlad Namestnikov and Ryan Callahan scored empty net goals to really put the game out of reach. To put the cherry on top, Nikita Kucherov scored with 4 seconds left to keep his point streak going.
The Bolts will be back on home ice on Thursday. Tampa Bay welcomes a team they have quite a bit of history with, the Detroit Red Wings, to Amalie Arena. The puck is scheduled to drop shortly after 7:30 with pregame coverage beginning at 6:30 on News Radio 970 WFLA.
SCORING SUMMARY
1ST PERIOD
1. TBL - PPG -Johnson - (Palat, Point) - 19:25
2ND PERIOD
1. TBL - Sergachev - (Stamkos, Johnson) - 9:13
3RD PERIOD
1. CAR - Slavin - (Pesce, Jooris) - 3:28
2. TBL - Namestnikov - (Hedman, Dotchin) - 17:27
3. TBL - Callahan - (Kunitz, Brown) - 18:39
4. TBL - Kucherov - (Stamkos, Coburn) - 19:56
PENALTY SUMMARY
1ST PERIOD
1. TBL - Kunitz - (Holding) - 2:19
2. TBL - Sustr - (Holding) - 9:30
3. CAR - Williams - (Holding) - 17:30
2ND PERIOD
1. TBL - Hedman - (Slashing) - 0:20
2. CAR - Williams - (Roughing) - 16:17
3. TBL - Hedman - (Roughing) - 16:17
3RD PERIOD
1. TBL - Stamkos - (Interference) - 0:33
SHOTS ON GOAL
Tampa Bay - 29
Carolina - 32