@jayRecher
Well, after their first matchup since Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final, the Lightning & Stars look like two teams headed in opposite directions.
Luckily enough for Tampa Bay fans, the Bolts are trending upwards.
Ondrej Palat, Anthony Cirelli, Brayden Point, Patrick Maroon and Steven Stamkos each scored and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 20 saves for his second shutout of the season as the Lightning defeated the Stars 5-0 on Saturday night at Amalie Arena.
After going 0-for-5 on the power play on Thursday night, the Lightning didn't wait long to snap that streak on Saturday.
Following a tripping call to Dallas winger Jason Robertson, Palat found a loose puck in the faceoff circle and snapped one quickly past Stars netminder Anton Khudobin just three seconds into the man-advantage to give Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead.
After missing six games with an upper-body injury, Lightning center Anthony Cirelli returned to the lineup and made his presence felt in big way early in the second period.
Coming down on the Dallas goal on a shorthanded 2-on-1, Cirelli took a pass from Steven Stamkos, made a slick deke to the backhand and roofed one high over the glove of Khudobin to put the Bolts up two.
The Bolts kept their foot on the gas for the remainder of the period.
Point snapped one past the blocker of Khudobin to make it 3-0 at the 8:17 mark, and then Maroon deflected in a pass from Tyler Johnson on the power play at 15:12 to put Tampa Bay up by four.
Stamkos scored on a one-timer just 67 seconds into the third period and after that goal, Khudobin was pulled in favor of his backup Jake Oettinger.
Big Rig Battle : In the first period, Tampa Bay's Patrick Maroon and Dallas' Jamie Oleksiak dropped the gloves and went at it in a pretty lengthy scrap. Ironically enough, both players have the nickname "Big Rig".
SCORING SUMMARY
1st Period
- Tampa Bay - PPG - Palat - (Killorn, Point) - 13:18
2nd Period
- Tampa Bay - SHG - Cirelli - (Stamkos) - 4:06
- Tampa Bay - Point - (Johnson, Sergachev) - 8:17
- Tampa Bay - PPG - Maroon - (Johnson, Sergachev) - 15:12
3rd Period
- Tampa Bay - Stamkos - (Cirelli) - 1:07
*****
PENALTY SUMMARY
1st Period
- Tampa Bay - McDonagh - (Tripping) - 6:51
- Tampa Bay - MAJOR - Maroon - (Fightning) - 6:51
- Dallas - MAJOR - Oleksiak - (Fighting) - 6:51
- Dallas - Robertson - (Tripping) - 13:15
- Tampa Bay - Stamkos - (Slashing) - 15:34
2nd Period
- Tampa Bay - Hedman - (Holding) - 0:52
- Tampa Bay - Gourde - (Hooking) - 2:40
- Dallas - Klingberg - (Tripping) - 13:56
3rd Period
- Tampa Bay - Volkov - (Tripping) - 2:34
- Tampa Bay - Gourde - (Tripping) - 12:11
- Tampa Bay - Goodrow - (Roughing) - 17:37
- Dallas - Dickinson - (Roughing) - 17:37
*****
What's Next For The Bolts : The Lightning are back in action on Tuesday night as they travel to Dallas to take on the Stars. Puck drop is slated for 8:30pm with the pregame show starting at 8:00pm on NewsRadio WFLA.