The Backcheck: A big third period bounce back

"It's Saturday night. You better enjoy it."
That was Brandon Hagel's advice for 24-year-old, rookie defenseman Nick Perbix, who recorded the game-winning goal on Saturday night when he found the back of the net for the first time in his NHL career.
The Tampa Bay Lightning pushed their point streak to a season-long five games with a 5-3 win over the Buffalo Sabres at AMALIE Arena on Saturday. It marked the Bolts' seventh-straight home win over the Sabres, who haven't won a game in Tampa since February of 2018. And while the Lightning held a lead at multiple times in this contest, they had to dig deep to earn two points against their Atlantic Division foe.

The Bolts got on the board first when Nick Paul opened the scoring with his fourth goal of the season at the 7:07 mark of the first period.
After Hagel's backdoor pass for Victor Hedman just missed the defenseman's stick, Hedman collected the puck in the corner and fed a backhand pass to Paul, who quickly fired a one-timer on goal that got through the five-hole of Eric Comrie to make it a 1-0 game.
With his goal, Paul extended his point streak to a career-long five games. An acquisition at last year's trade deadline, Paul has scored three goals and added three assists for six points during his five-game streak. Nikita Kucherov is the only Lightning player with a longer point streak this season.
Hedman, who missed the last two games with an upper-body injury, stepped right back into action and continued his consistent start to the season. The Big Swede has now recorded a point in eight of his last nine games played, picking up one goal and eight helpers during that span.
Hagel, who was also acquired at last year's trade deadline, has kept up with the consistency as well with points in six of his last seven contests. Hagel has four goals and six assists for 10 points over those seven games.
Following a successful kill of a Kucherov slashing penalty, the Bolts surrendered the lead just 38 seconds after returning back to five-on-five when Zemgus Girgensons jumped on a bouncing puck in front of the Tampa Bay net and fired a quick shot past Brian Elliott to even the score at one.
Entering the second period, the Lightning earned two quick power plays and connected on the second opportunity with Brayden Point scoring his sixth goal of the season 5:05 into the middle frame.
As Point skated over the middle of the Buffalo blue line on a three-on-two rush, he sent a pass to Stamkos at the left point, who showed tremendous patience and vision as he skated downhill and sent the puck back to Point, right on the back door, for an easy tap-in goal.

Stamkos picked up his sixth helper of the season and is now just three assists away from 500 on his career.
The secondary assist went to Kucherov, who extended his point streak to 10 games, the second-longest streak in the NHL this season and the sixth time in his career that he's posted such a streak. He has picked up 19 points (6G, 13A) over that 10-game span and continues to lead the Bolts in assists (14) and points (20).
Of all active players, only Sidney Crosby (10), Patrick Kane (7) and Connor McDavid (7) have recorded more 10-game point streaks in their career than Kucherov, who has been an absolute nightmare for Buffalo to deal with over the years.
He has recorded at least one point in 19 of his last 20 games (14-15-29) against the Sabres, including points in 10 straight games (10-8-18).
"He's a magician out there," Hagel said when asked about Kucherov. "He's such a skilled player. You've just got to be ready at all times."
The Bolts surrendered a power-play goal against as well and it came off the stick of Casey Mittelstadt just 3:29 after Point gave Tampa Bay the 2-1 lead. Mittelstadt did a good job to deflect a shot from the point that changed direction and got past Elliott.
The game entered the third period tied at two, but the Sabres used the momentum from the Mittelstadt goal and took the lead 4:25 into the final frame when Jeff Skinner scored his third goal of the season.
But the Lightning showed resiliency once again and tied the game back up when Hagel beat Comrie 3:15 after Skinner gave Buffalo the lead. Kucherov picked up the lone assist for his second point of the game.
With the game tied at three and overtime getting closer, Elliott stood tall in the crease for Tampa Bay and made some big, timely saves down the stretch. "Moose" played excellent for the Lightning once again and earned his third win in four starts this season.
Maybe the biggest save by Elliott came with just over five minutes in regulation when he slammed the door shut on Skinner, who slipped behind the Bolts defense and got a breakaway opportunity.
Once Elliott made the save, the Lightning immediately transitioned and got moving up the ice and towards the Buffalo end. Hagel entered the Sabres zone and sent a pass over to Kucherov, who dropped the puck off in the high slot for Perbix to come in and rip the eventual game-winning goal past Comrie.

"You've heard me say this many times," Tampa Bay head coach Jon Cooper explained following Saturday's win. "I know goaltenders look at their stats, the wins, the goals against, the save percentage and all that kind of stuff.
"The great ones though, they make timely saves. Whether it's 6-5 or 2-1, what are the saves you make at the big moments? Moose made it tonight and we took it from there.
"It's great because it's almost like he's getting rewarded for that, for making that save, and so you've got to tip your cap to him."
But it wasn't just Elliott who earned a tip of the cap.
Perbix, who looks like he's getting better with every game, appears to be earning a lot of respect from Cooper, who was thrilled for the young defenseman to get his first goal in the NHL on Saturday.
"I think when he sat on the bench, he sat in between Stammer and Hedman and you could see how happy they were for him," Cooper said. "That's a huge moment. Making the NHL and playing in your first game - massive moment.
"But being able to score your first goal and then it's the game winner. Deserving. You could see this was coming at some point. He'd been getting some chances and that was a big one, timing-wise, to go in for us."
Playing on a pair with Mikhail Sergachev, Perbix looks to have found a home on the second pair of Tampa Bay's defense group. His puck management and poise stick out, along with the overall calmness the Minnesota native brings to the ice.
"I've been fortunate enough to play with him (Sergachev) every game," said Perbix. "He's made it so much easier, talking on the bench and letting me know before faceoffs what to do. That's definitely helped."
For a player that hasn't even hit the 10-game mark in the NHL, Perbix rarely makes the silly, unnecessary turnover. He always appears to be calm and steady on the back end and while he may have been a slight surprise for the Bolts this early in the season, that surprise has been welcomed with open arms by fans, players and staff alike.
Upon the announcement of Perbix's first NHL goal, the AMALIE Arena crowd erupted with one of the loudest ovations of the night. The young defenseman has become quite the popular addition on Tampa Bay's back end.
"He's a really intelligent player and human," Cooper said. "He thinks. You can tell he processes things and that's how it translates into his game. He makes really smart outlet passes and now it's just getting to the point of doing it under more and more pressure because of the speed of the game. But you can see he's improving with each game.
"His first game, he probably would have changed (on the goal) because of nerves and all that. Now, he's growing confidence. Now, he's jumping into plays and making plays like that. He's been a very welcomed addition on our team."
Perbix, who is simply enjoying the ride of playing in the NHL, said he plans to give that first goal puck to two very important people that helped him throughout his journey to professional hockey.
"It'll probably go to my parents," Perbix said. "They've done so much for me, so that's at least one thing I can give to them."

Kucherov went on to add an empty-net goal to wrap up a 5-3 win and extend his goal streak to six games, the longest goal streak in the NHL this season. Robbed on multiple occasions by Comrie on Saturday, Kucherov still managed to record a four-point night with one goal and three assists.
"He robbed Kuch on a number of occasions tonight," Cooper said. "I think that's why Kuch gave it that extra zip when he threw it in the empty net."
Saturday was Kucherov's 20th four-point performance of his NHL career, passing Stamkos (19) for the most four-point games in Lightning franchise history.
Kucherov, Hagel and Point have now combined for 30 points over the last seven games with 12 goals and 18 assists. Hagel, who was a 21-goal scorer with the Chicago Blackhawks last season, is having a blast playing with his linemates in Tampa.
"I've been in the league for three years and I've probably played with six or seven Hall of Famers," Hagel said. "It's pretty incredible and I'm never going to take that for granted.
"Kucherov, this guy's insane. Pointer with his speed, skill and smartness. I'll never take for granted playing with players like this."
With points in five consecutive games, the Bolts will have a day off Sunday before practicing on Monday ahead of a matchup with Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday at AMALIE Arena.
For now, the Lightning will take the two points earned and keep things moving forward. There was a lot to like from the performance against Buffalo and while there are still things that need to be cleaned up, you can sense that the Bolts are continuing to trend in the right direction.
"We put a lot of pressure on them, I thought, for large parts of the game," Cooper said. "There were just too many Grade-A chances in the slot. The third goal's a perfect example for that.
"We really needed Moose tonight, especially when we fell behind and he stopped the breakaway and a couple Grade-A chances. If those go in, who knows what happens?
"But I like the perseverance the group had. Moose gave us life when he made that save and then we took it from there. A little too loose in our end, but for the most part, we'll take this."