The Backcheck: Bolts defeat the Coyotes at home

The Tampa Bay Lightning returned to AMALIE Arena and collected a second-straight victory with a 6-3 win over the Arizona Coyotes Thursday night.

After scoring just one goal on 78 shots against Connor Ingram over the previous two meetings, the Bolts came out firing and got on the board immediately with Darren Raddysh netting his fourth goal of the season on the Tampa Bay’s first shot of the game.

Just 24 seconds into the contest, Raddysh took a pass from Brandon Hagel and fired a quick wrister from the point that got through traffic and snuck through the five hole of Ingram to give the Lightning the early 1-0 lead.

Clayton Keller evened the score 8:16 later after Andrei Vasilevskiy made the initial save on a shot from Nick Schmaltz, but Keller was right there to jump on the rebound and bury his 20^th goal of the season to make it a 1-1 game.

As it looked like the game may go to the first intermission tied at one, Brayden Point found the back of the net with 33.6 seconds remaining in the opening frame to give Tampa Bay a 2-1 lead after 40 minutes.

Collecting the puck near the Lightning blue line, Nikita Kucherov sent a backhand pass across the neutral zone and off the boards for Point to use his speed, collect the puck and streak into the Arizona zone before ripping a shot off the glove of Ingram and into the back of the net for his 23^rd goal of the season.

Opening the second period up by one, the Bolts pushed the lead to 3-1 when Kucherov scored his 32^nd goal of the year at the 7:36 mark of the frame.

After Victor Hedman sent a pass to Steven Stamkos near the top of the Coyotes zone, Stamkos fed Kucherov near the bottom of the right circle before the All-Star winger hammered a one-timer past Ingram, giving Stamkos his 1,100^th career point.

Only 4:26 later, Stamkos got a goal of his own with Kucherov collecting the primary assist.  

With Tampa Bay snapping the puck around on the power play, Point sent a pass to the right circle for Kucherov, who feathered the puck across the offensive zone for Stamkos to wire his patented one-timer past Ingram to push the Lightning’s lead to 4-1 with 7:58 remaining in the second period.

The Bolts continued to pour it on and extended the lead to 5-1 when Mitchell Chaffee lit the lamp for his first career NHL goal and point with 4:42 remaining in the second period.

Positioning himself in front of the net, Chaffee showcased some nice hands and roofed a shot over Ingram after a rebound from a Max Crozier shot popped right out into the slot. Emil Lilleberg picked up the secondary assist to complete a stat line featuring three players that are all on call-up from the Syracuse Crunch.

Sean Durzi got Arizona back within three when he scored at the 16:59 mark of the second period to make it a 5-2 game after 40 minutes.

With 12:28 remaining in the third period, Luke Glendening scored Tampa Bay’s final goal of the contest to push the lead to 6-2. Getting in on the forecheck, Waltteri Merela and Chaffee forced a Coyotes turnover, allowing Glendening to quickly collect the puck in the slot and beat Ingram to the far post for his eighth goal of the season.

Lawson Crouse added a late tally for Arizona to wrap up the 6-3 final.

Bolts by the Numbers

• Darren Raddysh’s game-opening goal was scored 24 seconds into the opening frame, marking the second-fastest tally by a Lightning defenseman to start a contest in franchise history. Cory Sarich holds the record after scoring 12 seconds into Tampa Bay’s 4-3 win over the New York Islanders on December 14, 2002.
• Anthony Cirelli skated in his 400th career NHL game and recorded a secondary assist on Raddysh’s game-opening goal.
• Brayden Point scored his 23^rd goal of the season and picked up hos 29^th assist to extend his point streak to three games (2-3—5). He has collected 13 multi-point efforts this season.
• Nikita Kucherov scored a goal and added two assists for his 13^th three-point game this season and passed Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon to regain the NHL lead in points with 83 (32-51—83).
• Kucherov posted his fifth career 50-assist season and passed Steven Stamkos (4) for the second-most in Lightning franchise history. Martin St. Louis (6) is the only skater with more.
• Kucherov has now recorded 50 assists prior to his 50th game in three separate seasons. He is the only active player to achieve the feat multiple times. Wayne Gretzky (15x), Mario Lemieux (9x), Bobby Orr (6x) Paul Coffey (4x), Denis Savard (4x), Bryan Trottier (4x), Adam Oates (4x) and Peter Stastny (3x) are the only other players in NHL history to accomplish the feat three times.
• Kucherov has recorded three points in each of Tampa Bay’s last three home games, tied with Chris Kontos (3 GP in 1992-93) for the second-longest streak in Lightning franchise history, trailing only Steven Stamkos (4 GP in 2021- 22).
• Steven Stamkos scored one goal and added one assist to become the first player in Lightning franchise history to record 1,100 career points with the club.
• Mitchell Chaffee scored his first career NHL goal and recorded his first career NHL point in the process.
• Andrei Vasilevskiy made 17 saves on 20 shots against to improve to 15-10-0 on the season. Vasilevskiy is 6-1-0 over his last seven starts.

Bolts Quotes

• Steven Stamkos on Mitchell Chaffee’s first goal: “The youthful energy that has been brought into this room in the past few weeks has been great and not for just the way they played on the ice. They've done an amazing job on the ice but just that anxiousness, that nervousness, that energy that you have in the room for these young guys. They are all great, young guys. I think that has been a help as well, maybe a little jolt. They've certainly played extremely well for us.”
• Mitchell Chaffee on his first NHL goal: “It doesn't seem too exciting anymore after Stammer's 1,100 points, but congrats to him. Crozier just kind of banked it off the goalie and it came back to me and the biggest thing was trying to elevate the puck and get it upstairs and it found the back of the net.”
• Chaffee on Max Crozier and Emil Lilleberg getting the helpers on his first goal: “It's awesome. I walked to the rink with them today. I'm close with them and they are great guys and it just makes it that much better.”
• Stamkos on hitting 1,100 points: “I don't take for granted any point that I get. I've been very fortunate to play with some amazing players in my career. Like I always say, it's pretty cool to have done it all with one team so, also, helps to do it in a win. Everyone is in a good mood and, hopefully, we can keep that going.”

Krenner’s Three Stars

1. Nikita Kucherov
2. Steven Stamkos
3. Mitchell Chaffee

Lightning Look Ahead

• Saturday, January 27 vs. New Jersey Devils, 7 p.m. ET, AMALIE Arena - Buy Tickets
• Wednesday, February 7 at New York Rangers, 7 p.m. ET, Madison Square Garden
• Thursday, February 8 at New York Islanders, 8 p.m. ET, UBS Arena