Through their first 21 games, the Lightning played seven contests in which they were tied entering the third period. They lost four of those games in regulation. Throw in Wednesday’s regulation defeat against Washington, a game they led after two periods. Those are valuable potential points that the Lightning have let slip away.
In this game against Nashville, the Lightning were again tied after 40 minutes. This time, however, they didn’t leave points on the table. They played a scoreless final 20 minutes and then won the game with a Brayden Point overtime power-play goal.
The Lightning skated a man short for the majority of this game. In the first period, an Erik Cernak shot hit Anthony Cirelli — Cirelli missed most of the rest of the period. Nikita Kucherov didn’t play at all in the second period, although he returned for the third and overtime. Since the Lightning went with an 11F-7D lineup, they went most of the first two periods with only 10 forwards. Jon Cooper essentially rolled three lines during that timeframe.
The adversity didn’t affect their game. For much of the night, the Lightning defended hard and limited opposition scoring chances. Jonas Johansson finished with 28 saves and was sharp in denying the Grade-A looks that the Predators did generate.
After yielding an early seeing-eye-shot goal to Roman Josi, the Lightning trailed, 1-0. Johansson made a key breakaway save on Colton Sissons late in the first to keep the deficit at one. Early in the second period, Juuse Saros stopped a Point breakaway during a four-on-four. The teams combined for three penalties that overlapped one another during the middle stanza’s opening minutes. The Preds didn’t score on their two PP chances, and the Lightning (without Kucherov at that point) were unsuccessful on their one PP opportunity. But during Nashville’s second man advantage, the Lightning tied the game. Luke Glendening took the puck away from Josi at the Lightning blue line and countered on a two-on-zero breakaway with Cirelli. Glendening fed Cirelli, who had the puck bounce off his stick and carom into the air. Cirelli then batted the puck past Saros to tie the score at 4:06. Just over four minutes later, Brandon Hagel snapped a shot from the top of the right circle through a screen that deflected off a Nashville player past Saros.
Although the Lightning created some good offensive-zone looks during the second period, they also had some issues with their d-zone puck management. One of those failed breakouts led to Josi’s second goal of the game, which tied the score at 11:20.
Kucherov returned for the third period, and the Lightning received a power play in the opening minute when Saros took a delay-of-game penalty for shooting the puck out of play. Not only did the Preds kill the penalty, but they also gained momentum from the strong kill. They applied heavy pressure for several shifts after the penalty ended and almost grabbed the lead. They didn’t convert, however, and the Lightning eventually leveled the ice. The final 15 minutes of regulation were evenly played. The Lightning managed those minutes well — they didn’t give any ‘freebies’ to the Preds.
Early in overtime, Filip Forsberg took a high-sticking penalty in the offensive zone, putting the Lightning on a four-on-three power play. Jake Guentzel won a faceoff to begin the man advantage, and Kucherov took a shot that Saros stopped. The next faceoff was at the opposite circle, to Saros’ left. The Lightning sent out Glendening for the draw against Ryan O’Reilly. O’Reilly won this faceoff, and the puck slid towards Brady Skjei. But Kucherov moved towards the puck quickly and nudged it past Skjei into the right corner. Then he swept a backhand pass through the low slot to Point, open at the opposite side of the net. Point outwaited Saros and finished a backhander to win the game. The power-play goal was just the eighth allowed all season by Nashville’s top-ranked penalty kill unit.
As they have done in a number of contests this year, the Lightning put themselves in a position to get points out of a game. Unlike some of those other missed opportunities, they did add two points to their season total.
Lightning Radio Three Stars of the Game:
- Anthony Cirelli — Lightning. SHG. 11=6 on faceoffs.
- Roman Josi — Predators. Two goals.
- Jonas Johansson — Lightning. 28 saves.
