@jayRecher
Five different Bolts players scored & Brian Elliott made 28 saves for his first shutout of the season as the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the visiting Buffalo Sabres 5-0 on Sunday night at Amalie Arena.
Corey Perry, Ondrej Palat, Brandon Hagel, Nikita Kucherov & Ross Colton each scored for Tampa Bay.
Perry got the Lightning on the board first -- his first in 16 games -- at the 9:21 mark of the opening period in a display of pure determination & skill.
As he was getting tripped up -- the penalty was in the process of being called -- Perry was still able to get a shot off & he beat Buffalo netminder Craig Anderson five-hole to put Tampa Bay up 1-0.
17 seconds later, the Bolts doubled their lead.
Storming into the offensive zone on a 3-on-2, Palat took a feed from Brayden Point and quickly beat Anderson over the blocker to give Tampa Bay a 2-0 lead. That was Palat's first goal since January 11th, a 28-game drought. The opponent in that game.....the Buffalo Sabres.
The Lightning didn't take long to make it 3-0 in the 2nd.
Hagel scored his third goal as a member of the Bolts when he found a rebound out in front and backhanded it into the net just 72 seconds into the middle stanza.
Just over three minutes later, Ryan McDonagh -- who returned to the lineup after missing eight games with an upper-body injury -- made an incredible cross-ice pass to Kucherov on the door step & the Lightning's star winger fired it past Anderson to put Tampa Bay up four.
Colton scored at 2:09 of the 3rd to wrap up the scoring for the Bolts.
Anderson made 23 saves in defeat for Buffalo.
*****
SCORING SUMMARY
1st Period
- Tampa Bay - Perry - (Bogosian) - 9:21
- Tampa Bay - Palat - (Point) - 9:38
2nd Period
- Tampa Bay - Hagel - (Cirelli, Hedman) - 1:12
- Tampa Bay - Kucherov - (McDonagh, Palat) - 4:28
3rd Period
- Tampa Bay - Colton - (Stamkos, Paul) - 2:09
*****
PENALTY SUMMARY
1st Period
NONE
2nd Period
NONE
3rd Period
- Buffalo - Samuelsson - (Delay of Game) - 7:15
- Tampa Bay - Sergachev - (Holding) - 9:31
- Buffalo - Samuelsson - (High Sticking) - 15:55
- Tampa Bay - Killorn - (High Sticking) - 16:46
*****
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 9:30pm with the pregame starting at 9:00pm on NewsRadio WFLA & Lightning Power Play on the iHeartRadio app.
Photo: Getty Images North America
PHOTO : Getty Images