The Backcheck: Bolts cap strong homestand with win over Columbus

"You've got to win your games at home, or most of them, and that's what we did," said Lightning head coach Jon Cooper. "It was a good homestand and, probably the defensive side of things, we got much better at as things went on."
The Bolts skated to a 4-1 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday night and wrapped up a season-long, six-game homestand with a 5-1-0 record. The Lightning improved to 12-4-1 on home ice this season and now have the third-best home point percentage in the NHL at .735.

Tampa Bay has won both matchups against Columbus this season with one more game to be played at AMALIE Arena on January 10. The Lightning have beat the Blue Jackets six straight times at home and are 7-1-0 in the last eight meetings overall.
As we've seen on several occasions throughout the season, the Bolts got off to a quick start in the first period and jumped out to a 1-0 lead 3:57 into the game with Pierre-Edouard Bellemare scoring his first goal of the season off assists from Vladislav Namestnikov and Victor Hedman.
"It felt nice, especially the fact that we won the game" said Bellemare on his first goal of the year. "If we would've lost the game, it wouldn't have been much, but helping offensively when we win the game is nice."
Bellemare's goal marked the 17th time in 29 games that Tampa Bay has scored the first goal of the game this season. Following Thursday's win, the Bolts are now 14-3-0 when scoring first. It was especially important in the matchup with Columbus, who are now 3-12-1 when giving up the first goal of the game this year.\

Outshooting the Jackets 12-6 in the opening 20 minutes, the Lightning went into the first intermission with the one-goal lead and surrendered it at the 3:10 mark of the second with Kirill Marchenko netting his third goal of the season for Columbus.
The middle frame wasn't the best for Tampa Bay with the Jackets possessing the puck for the majority of the period, but the Lightning did a good job keeping things to the outside for the most part and still generated five high-danger scoring chances at 5-on-5 while Columbus had three.
A late power play in the second for the Bolts didn't result in a goal, but there were multiple great chances generated that helped swing momentum in Tampa Bay's favor heading into the third.
The Lightning were the much better team in the final period with the line of Brandon Hagel, Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov scoring three separate times to secure the 4-1 win. The game-winning goal came off the stick of Point at the 9:02 mark of the third when Hagel tried to find him on the backdoor, but the Columbus defenseman was able to get a stick on the pass. Fortunately for the Bolts, the puck bounced off the pad of Daniil Tarasov and Point was right there to score a goal for the fifth-straight game.
Point's five-game goal streak is tied for the longest streak of his career after also scoring in five straight games in December of 2017. He joined Kucherov and Steven Stamkos as the three Lightning skaters to record five-game goal streaks this season.
Point is up to five game-winning goals this season, which is tied for the second-most in the NHL and already the fourth-most he's recorded in a single season in his career. He became the fifth player in Tampa Bay franchise history to record 40 career game-winning goals with the club, joining Stamkos, Kucherov, Martin St. Louis and Vincent Lecavalier.

"When a guy is hot, he's hot," said Hagel. "That's what Pointer's been doing. He just keeps getting better and it's fun to watch."
Hagel's been plenty of fun to watch himself. His speed and tenacity on the forecheck have been a great addition to the combination of Point and Kucherov, and it certainly helps when he has the skill to score goals and make plays with the puck as well.
Relentless on the forecheck, Hagel leads all NHL forwards with 42 takeaways this season, just one shy of the league lead overall. In terms of scoring, his 10 goals and 23 points both rank fifth on the team, while his 13 assists rank seventh.
"He has the same attitude Palat has," Cooper said. "Those are the guys that never give up. They're maybe not the biggest guys in the league, but they've got the biggest hearts. They never give up on plays and their gritty.
"Kuch and Point are gritty too, but just, at times, in different ways. They're all big-time competitors, but Hages does a lot of that, at times, dirty work and gets those guys the puck. But he's got the skill to back it up. It's been a great fit."
That skill was on display when Hagel put the Lightning up 3-1 with 6:24 remaining in regulation. After Hedman made a perfect bank pass up the wall to Kucherov in the neutral zone, Kucherov sent the puck right onto the tape of Hagel, who was barreling into the Columbus zone before ripping a shot right under the glove of Tarasov for his ninth goal of the year.
With no choice but to pull their goalie, Columbus emptied their net with about three minutes remaining and Ian Cole sent a puck off the glass for Kucherov, who found himself at the hashmarks in front of the Blue Jackets crease before any defending player even made it over the blue line. With a wide-open net ready for Kucherov to bury his 12th goal of the season, the star winger turned around and gave the puck to Hagel, who slid it home to seal the victory for Tampa Bay.
"I guess that's why he's got a letter on his jersey," said Hagel. "Respect to him. Thinking about it now, maybe I should've gave it back, but I'll take it."
Somehow flying under the radar on a national level, Kucherov leads the NHL with 34 assists through 29 games this season. His 45 points are the fourth-most in the league and Thursday marked the 30th three-assist game of his career, already the most in franchise history. Among active players, only Sidney Crosby, Nicklas Backstrom, Evgeni Malkin and Connor McDavid have recorded more in their career. Kucherov has posted an assist in five consecutive games with six in his last two contests alone.
"It's pretty sick," said Bellemare. "It's fun to be on that side."

At 5-on-5 this season, the Hagel, Point, Kucherov line has generated 57.52% of the high-danger scoring chances when they're on the ice together. Over the course of the six-game homestand, the trio combined for 10 goals and 13 assists for 23 points.
In total, the Bolts outscored their opponents 25-13 on the homestand, averaged 34.8 shots per game and looked good on special teams with a 20% power-play percentage and 93.8% penalty kill percentage.
"Yesterday's news though, already," said Cooper. "Now four division teams in a week right before Christmas. Big trip for us before the break."
Tampa Bay's road trip kicks off with a Saturday night matchup versus the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. ET.
NOTABLE
-Victor Hedman recorded two assists in the win and has four helpers in his last two contests.
- Brian Elliott made 24 saves on 25 shots for his seventh-straight win. He's the third goalie in the past 11 years to have a win streak of at least seven games at age 37 or older.
- Anthony Cirelli skated in his 300th career game in the win.