The Backcheck: A victorious end to the trip

The Seattle Kraken were all over the ice during the first eight minutes of Saturday’s late-night NHL showing against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle.

Seattle registered the game’s first seven shots on goal, hemming the visiting Lightning in their own end while earning numerous redirected looks which forced Tampa Bay goalie Jonas Johansson to be sharp from the opening whistle.

Once Tampa Bay got going, though, the Lightning were hard to impede—the visitors outshot Seattle 10-1 over the rest of the first period, and goals by Brandon Hagel and Brayden Point gave the team a 2-1 advantage.

Tampa Bay went on to win 5-1, improving to 16-10-2 this season.

Lightning forward Brandon Hagel, who scored twice on Saturday, credited Johansson for keeping the visitors in the game early.

“We started really slow. I think they were pushing, but JJ kept us in it right from the beginning. We were able to get one and then we kind of went on from there, but hats off to JJ for keeping us in it,” Hagel said. “I know they had a ton of looks, and he was solid. And then obviously when you get one, you get another one, you kind of start feeling it a little bit.”

Brandon Montour’s power-play goal 4:24 into the game started the scoring, but the Lightning had a quick answer. Hagel deflected home a shot pass by defenseman Nick Perbix on the team’s third shot of the game to make it 1-1 at the 8:16 mark of the first period.

Brayden Point gave the visitors their first lead of the night, scoring his 20th goal of the season on a rebound when he snuck a loose puck through the legs of Seattle goalie Philipp Grubauer with 6:39 left in the first.

Point has 15 points (4-11—15) in his last five games, and Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper spoke of the forward’s skill after the game.

“He’s an elite scorer. You get him close to the net, he knows where to put it. It doesn’t have to be fast, he just knows where to place it,” Cooper said. “But he’s really grown to be a superstar in this league. …When you’re buying tickets to hockey games, you’re coming to see a professional game but there’s some guys that stand out, that you really wanna watch, and he’s one of them.”

Point wasn’t the only Tampa Bay forward who kept their recent streak alive, as linemate Jake Guentzel extended his goal-scoring streak to six straight games with a power-play goal to make it 3-1 Tampa Bay four minutes into the third period. Guentzel batted a loose puck out of midair in front of the Seattle net.

Nikita Kucherov earned his first of two assists on the play, adding his second on an empty-net goal from Hagel for a 4-1 lead. Kucherov has 17 points in his last seven games and sits tied for second in NHL scoring with 42 points (14-32—46) in 26 games.

“That line’s clicking,” Cooper said of the Guentzel-Point-Kucherov trio after a game each player had two points. “It’s a bunch of elite players that think the game at a high level, and they all work hard, they’re pretty responsible, and that’s the kind stuff you get.”

Rookie defenseman Declan Carlile scored his first NHL goal with a shot past Grubauer’s glove in the game’s final minute. The undrafted 24-year-old defenseman was playing in his second career NHL game and first this season.

“I was an undrafted free agent out of school and I didn’t know where I’d be,” Carlile said. “Now I’m here and I scored my first NHL goal, which is something you always dream about as a kid. And on top of it we got a great team win, so that was good.”

Johansson’s 21 saves helped him finish with a season-high .955 save percentage and improved his record to 3-1-1 this season.

The Lightning remain fourth in the Atlantic Division and are four points out of first place after Saturday’s win. Tampa Bay will look to tie a season-long three-game winning streak when they host the Columbus Blue Jackets at 7 p.m. Tuesday at AMALIE Arena.

Cooper hopes to see more of the team defense that helped the Lightning finish their four-game road trip with a 3-1-0 record despite battling injuries and lineup changes.

“We defended, and that was the big talk about we don’t need anymore goals, we can score enough. But you have to defend. And what we didn’t do on this road trip that often was give up the big chances or give the freebies up, the odd-mans. Yes, it happens sometimes, there’s no question it happens. But the volume, you keep that down, and we made them have to go through all five of us all the time.

“You do that for the most part on the road trip, success will follow, and fortunately for us it did.”

Benjamin’s Three Stars:

1. Jonas Johansson, TBL (21 saves)
2. Brayden Point, TBL (Goal, Assist)
3. Jake Guentzel, TBL (Goal, Assist)