The Backcheck: Bolts stay strong in OT win over the Kraken

After dropping the first contest of a five-game road trip in Nashville Thursday night, the Tampa Bay Lightning got back in the win column with a 4-3 overtime win over the Seattle Kraken Saturday night at Climate Pledge Arena.

Tampa Bay came out of the gate with plenty of pace and played one of their best periods of the season in the opening 20 minutes.

Anthony Cirelli continued his hot streak and gave the Bolts a 1-0 lead at the 9:28 mark of the first period. Skating below the Seattle goal line with the puck, Tanner Jeannot sent a pass to the point for Nick Perbix, who hammered a shot towards the Kraken goal where Cirelli was waiting to redirect his seventh goal of the season past Philip Grubauer.

Almost exactly 10 minutes later, Nikita Kucherov’s incredible year continued when he scored his 18th goal of the campaign to put the Lightning up 2-0 with just 43.8 seconds left in the opening frame.

The play started with Kucherov forcing a turnover in the Seattle zone, allowing Brandon Hagel to gain possession in the high slot. Hagel sent a pass to the right circle for Brayden Point, who made a beautiful pass to the back door for Kucherov to light the lamp and send Tampa Bay to the locker room with a 2-0 lead and a 14-4 shot advantage.

The Bolts expected a push back in the second period from Seattle and they got one with the Kraken holding a 15-9 shot advantage and netting the only two goals of the middle frame.

Oliver Bjorkstrand got his team back within one when he scored at the 9:52 mark before Jamie Oleksiak quickly tied the game just 2:31 later.

Going into a critical third period, the Lightning fell behind almost instantly when Jared McCann scored a power-play goal just 14 seconds into the frame to give Seattle a 3-2 lead.

But the Bolts continued to push and got the game-tying goal with 12:51 remaining off the stick of Nick Paul. With Kucherov skating the puck through the neutral zone, the Lightning pushed forward into the Kraken zone before Cirelli took a pass near the top of the left circle. Keeping his head up the whole way, Cirelli found Paul at the top of the crease, where he was waiting to redirect the puck over the glove of Joey Daccord for his ninth goal of the year.

With the game tied 3-3 at the end of the third period, perhaps the biggest moment of the game came at the start of overtime with the Bolts down a man and forced to kill off 1:45 of a 4-on-3 power play for the Kraken.

Tampa Bay successfully got the penalty killed off and got the game-winning goal from their most valuable player in Kucherov. And while Kucherov was the one who ended the game, a lot of the credit has to go to Hagel, who used his speed and tenacity to generate a Grade-A scoring chance for the NHL’s leading goal scorer.

Taking the puck in his own end at the left circle in front of Andrei Vasilevskiy, Hagel turned on the jets and skated towards the right wall. Accelerating past Matty Beniers in the neutral zone, Hagel continued to fly forward and fought through a stick check of Jordan Eberle near the Kraken blue line.

Flying into the Seattle zone, Hagel sent a perfect backhand pass right through the skates of Vince Dunn and onto the tape of Kucherov, who beat Daccord with his 19th tally of the year to earn the crucial second point for the Lightning.

Andrei Vasilevskiy was back between the pipes for Tampa Bay and earned his fourth win of the season with 26 saves on 29 shots against.

Victor Hedman did not return to the bench to start the third period and missed the remainder of the contest.

Bolts by the Numbers

- Anthony Cirelli scored his third game-opening goal of the season, tying Nikita Kucherov (3) for the Lightning team lead.

- Cirelli extended his point streak to a season-long four games (4-2—6) and has scored five goals over his last eight contests.

- Nikita Kucherov scored his 18th and 19th goals of the season to pass Brock Boeser and Auston Matthews (18 each) to take over the NHL lead in goals.

- With his 28th helper of the season, Kucherov passed Cale Makar and Quinn Hughes to take over the NHL lead in assists.

- Kucherov continues to pace all NHL skaters in points and is up to 47 (19-28—47) through just 28 games.

Bolts Quotes

- Jon Cooper: “In the end, it came down to a massive penalty kill for us in overtime and then, as I said, the big boys made some plays. I just loved the character in the guys and how we pulled this one out.”

- Nikita Kucherov: “We just have to play our game. We can't give up the lead that we had. As I've said before, we've got to play better and consistent. We didn't do it today. We have tobuild from a win, but definitely have to play a lot better.”

- Jon Cooper on Nikita Kucherov: “Even the year he was the MVP, he's been better this year. His attentiveness at both ends of the ice. I don't know, he's just a hell of a player.”

- Nick Paul: “When adversity hits us, what do we do? Do we rise to the occasion or do we fold? That's huge for our team when adversity hits to come up big like that. Everyone's laying it on the line and stepping up to the plate and wanting to be the guy. Everything we do is for the team and it showed there at the end.”

- Nick Paul on Brandon Hagel’s assist on the OT GWG: “He hit the speed boost there. A little Need for Speed action, hit the NOS. Beat him wide and then unbelievable backhand pass to Kuch and Kuch isn't going to make no mistake around there.”

Krenner’s Three Stars

1. Nikita Kucherov

2. Anthony Cirelli

3. Brandon Hagel

Lightning Look Ahead

• Tuesday, December 12 at Vancouver Canucks, 10 p.m. ET, Rogers Arena

• Thursday, December 14 at Edmonton Oilers, 9 p.m. ET, Rogers Place

• Saturday, December 16 at Calgary Flames, 10 p.m. ET, Scotiabank Saddledome