On a night when the franchise honored its 2004 Stanley Cup Championship Team, the Tampa Bay Lightning won the battle against one of the battle teams in the conference.
Center Steven Stamkos scored a power play goal plus the lone shootout goal, giving the Tampa Bay Lightning a 5-4 win over Columbus on Saturday night. With the win, the Lightning are 11-2-2 with 24 points to lead the NHL.
The game started with both teams skating well in the open ice. But it was the Blue Jackets who opened the scoring after their third shot on net got past Vasilevskiy. What looked like a harmless shot from near the point from Blue jackets Defenseman Seth Jones ended up behind Lightning Goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy after the puck deflected off Victor Hedman, who was standing in front of the net.
That Columbus goal seemed to wake up the Lightning, who not only tied the score but took the lead in a matter of 38 seconds. The first goal came off the stick of Center Brayden Point, with some nifty stick work in front of the net. The Point goal was his seventh, assisted by Right Wing J.T. Brown & Defenseman Dan Girardi. Then the Lightning took the lead 2-1, when the NHL's goal leader Nikita Kucherov scored his 14th goal of the season, with assists going to Defenseman Mikhail Sergachev & Center Vladislav Namestnikov.
It wasn't until we reached under the ten minute mark of the first period but Columbus ended up tying the game at two when Defenseman Zach Werenski, who was alone in front of the net, scored a goal, with assist going to Left Wing Pierre-Luc Dubis & Left Wing Markus Hannikainen.
After tying the score, the Blue Jackets were given the first chance on the power play when Right Wing Ryan Callahan was called for holding. But rather than take advantage of the power play opportunity, Columbus Left Wing Nick Foligno took a tripping penalty, while the Blue Jackets were on the attack. Columbus was able to kill off the Lightning's brief power play after the tripping penalty & even had a quick rush once Foligno exited the penalty box, but was turned away by Vasilevskiy. And before the period ended the Lightning had a flurry of opportunities with less than a minute left in the period but couldn't get a strong opportunity to untie the game. The first period ended tied at two with the Lightning out-shooting the Blue Jackets 17-15.
At the start of the second period, neither team had a strong chance to unlock the tie, that is until Hedman took the first penalty of the second period. Hedman was called for high-sticking while Tampa Bay was on the attack. The Lightning were able to kill off that penalty & eventually had their own power play chance. And it may have came after a few fanned shots, the puck found Center Steven Stamkos, who stopped the pass then fired a wrist shot near the left face off circle to give the Lightning a power play goal & a 3-2 lead.
Before the end of the period, both goalies made stops to keep it a one goal game. That is until Center Yanni Gorde, after a pretty feed from behind the net by Center Alex Killorn, snapped a shot past Columbus Goalie Sergei Bobrovsky making it 4-2. The second period ended with Tampa Bay out-shooting Columbus 10-6.
With the exception of a big hit by Girardi & a breakaway chance for Point, much of the action in nearly the first 10 minutes of the third period took place in the neutral zone. That is until Hannikainen scored a goal with just over 10 minutes left in the third. And in less than 120 seconds later, the Blue Jackets tied the score at four after another Lightning turnover led to Center Brandon Dubinsky scoring his first goal of the season, from right in front of the Lightning net.
Both teams scrambled to break the 4-4 before the end of the third period but neither team was able to do so. And for the second straight game, the Lightning played an overtime game. Both goalies ended the third period making 32 saves.
The three on three ovetime went back & forth before Stamkos was called for tripping a minute into the overtime. Fortunately for the Lightning, they were able to kill off that penalty & survive the four on three two minutes.
The overtime ended with no scoring & it took three rounds of shootouts with both goalies turning away each team's first two shooters. Then Stamkos beat Bobrovsky & Vasilevskiy stopped Left Wing Sonny Milano to seal the 5-4 shootout win.
The Lightning begin a three game West Coast trip at San Jose on Wednesday night. Coverage begins on 970 WFLA at 10pm.
SCORING SUMMARY:
1ST PERIOD:
1. CBJ - Jones - 2:30
2. TBL - Point - (Brown, Girardi) - 2:54
3. TBL - Kucherov - (Sergachev, Namestnikov) - 3:32
4. CBJ - Werenski - (Dubois, Hannikainen) - 10:55
2ND PERIOD:
1. TBL - PP - Stamkos - (Kucherov, Hedman) - 6:20
2. TBL - Gourde - (Killorn, Hedman) - 18:01
3RD PERIOD:
1. CBL - Hannikainen - (Milano, Jones) - 9:46
2. CBL - Dubinsky - (Jenner, Bjorkstrand) - 11:45
OVERTIME:
NONE
SHOOTOUT:
1. TBL - Stamkos
PENALTY SUMMARY
1ST PERIOD
1. TBL - Callahan - (Holding) - 14:48
2. CBJ - Foligno - (Tripping) - 15:54
2ND PERIOD
1. TBL - Hedman - (High-Sticking) - 1:30
2. CBJ - Murray - (Interference) - 5:10
3. CBJ - Murray - (Tripping) - 9:23
4. TBL - Sergachev - (Interference) - 11:20
3RD PERIOD
NONE
OVERTIME
1. TBL - Stamkos - (Tripping) - 1:05