Some wins in the regular season feel bigger than others. That was the case Thursday night at AMALIE Arena when the Tampa Bay Lightning skated to a 5-4 win over the defending Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights.
Entering the evening with more points than any other team in the National Hockey League, Vegas got out to a 2-0 lead by the end of the first period with goals from Jonathan Marchessault and Ivan Barbashev.
Prior to Thursday night, Vegas was 10-1-1 when leading after the first period this season. Conversely, the Lightning have struggled mightily in the second period over the last several weeks.
But this game was a different story. The Bolts would go on to outscore the Golden Knights 4-0 in the middle frame in a period that felt like it could have a major impact on the rest of the season.
Alex Barré-Boulet got Tampa Bay on the board with his sixth goal of the season 8:25 into the second period. After Conor Sheary sent a pass up to the point for Victor Hedman, the big defenseman leaned into a slap shot that deflected off the stick of a Vegas defender and right to the back door, where Barré-Boulet was waiting to redirect the puck past Jiri Patera to make it a 2-1 game.
That was the beginning of getting the crowd back into the game. But a little over four minutes later, the crowd was really back into things when Brandon Hagel dropped the gloves with Barbashev in a spirited bout.
Following a hit on Anthony Cirelli by Barbashev, Hagel stepped in and challenged the Vegas forward before they both dropped the gloves and threw some haymakers before Hagel skated off to the penalty box and threw his hands in the air, igniting the AMALIE Arena crowd.
The Lightning fed off the energy and continued to push for the game-tying goal before the Golden Knights took back-to-back penalties and sent Tampa Bay to a 5-on-3 power play.
Showing urgency to score with the two-man advantage, the Bolts got the game tied up off the stick of the NHL’s top point getter in Nikita Kucherov with two seconds to spare on the 5-on-3.
Working the puck around, Steven Stamkos found Kucherov at the right circle before the All-Star winger hammered a one-timer past Petera to make it a 2-2 game.
Still on the power play and with the crowd urging them on, the Lightning grabbed the lead for the first time just 33 seconds later when Brayden Point buried his 15th goal of the season.
After a seam pass from Kucherov went off multiple skates in front of the Vegas net, Point was right there, tracking the puck the whole way, to put a shot over the glove of Patera and give Tampa Bay the 3-2 lead.
With the crowd buzzing, Point added a second goal only 2:22 later after a shot from Nick Paul rang off the post before Point, once again, jumped on a loose puck in front and roofed a shot over Patera’s glove to make it 4-2 with 1:10 remaining in the second period.
Going into the third with a two-goal lead, the Lightning quickly found themselves in a one-goal game after Kucherov was whistled for a questionable unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and Marchessault scored his second goal of the contest to make it 4-3 early in the final frame.
Then, with 10:16 remaining in regulation, Paul Cotter scored to even the game at 4-4 and bringing some uneasiness into the building.
But Tampa Bay remained confident and continued to push before Paul eventually netted the game-winning goal with 1:13 left on the clock.
With Point flying downhill into the Vegas zone, the shifty forward fired a quick wrister into the pads of Patera, allowing Paul to jump on a big rebound and quickly fire a shot into the back of the net from a tough angle to make it a 5-4 game with his third point of the night.
It was a resilient win for the Lightning, who went down by two, gave up a two-goal lead and still managed to push forward and earn a win in regulation against a top-tier opponent.
They’ll have one more opportunity to keep the winning ways going before Christmas when they battle the Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena Saturday night. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. ET.
Tampa Bay is now 16-13-5 on the season.
Bolts by the Numbers
- Brayden Point picked up three points with two goals and one assist and recorded his 500th career point, making him just the sixth player in Lightning franchise history to hit the milestone.
- Point extended his point streak to six games with eight points during that span (4-4—8).
- Nikita Kucherov recorded another three-point night with one goal and two assists and is us to 57 points on the season (23—34—57).
- Kucherov leads the NHL in points and is one of just two players to hit the 50-point mark (also: Nathan MacKinnon, COL).
- Kucherov has now posted a multi-point effort in four consecutive games (4-6—10) and is up to 17 multi-point games on the season, tied with MacKinnon for the NHL lead.
- Kucherov recorded all three of his points in the second period for his 19th career three-point period. Only five active players have more – Sidney Crosby (24), Connor McDavid (24), Alex Ovechkin (22), Patrick Kane (21) and Evgeni Malkin (19).
- Nick Paul recorded a three-point night with one goal and two assists for his second-consecutive three-point effort.
- Paul is up to 19 points on the season (11-8—19).
- Victor Hedman recorded three assists for his first three-point game of the season and now has 32 points on the year (5-27—32).
- Hedman has picked up 15 points over his last 15 games (2-13— 15).
- Two of Hedman’s three assists came in the second period, marking the 62nd multi-point period of his career. The only other active defensemen with as many are Erik Karlsson (83) and Brent Burns (71).
- Steven Stamkos recorded one assist and extended his point streak to four games with nine points during that span (5-4—9).
Bolts Quotes
- Nick Paul on Brandon Hagel’s fight: “It was huge. You heard the crowd. I could barely hear myself think. He started throwing the hands in the air after throwing a couple haymakers. That was awesome. That’s what it takes…Amazing fight. Brought a lot of energy to the boys.”
- Jon Cooper on Brandon Hagel’s fight: “It went from game 34 to a playoff-game atmosphere. You look at our team and you want to have your guys show emotion and Hags most definitely brought the team into the fight tonight, no pun intended.”
- Brayden Point on Brandon Hagel’s fight: “It just brought the energy in the building. The crowd came alive and that fueled us. We got energy from it. It was a guy sticking up for a teammate and then it was a spirited bout. I mean, they were both throwing. That was awesome to see and that crowd was just so loud and I think that really helped us. We just had good energy after that.”
- Jon Cooper on getting pucks and bodies to the net: “It’s something you should be trying to harp on as a team. We don’t get enough shots from our defensemen. That was a big point of emphasis is to shoot the pucks and really get bodies there. I think the last couple games we’re getting rewarded for it, so hopefully we continue.”
Krenner’s Three Stars
- Brayden Point
- Brandon Hagel
- Nick Paul
Lightning Look Ahead
- Saturday, December 23 at Washington Capitals, 7 p.m. ET, Capital One Arena
- Wednesday, December 27 vs. Florida Panthers, 7 p.m. ET, AMALIE Arena - Buy Tickets
- Saturday, December 30 vs. New York Rangers, 7 p.m. ET, AMALIE Arena - Buy Tickets
