The Backcheck: Bolts down Ducks for third-consecutive win

The Tampa Bay Lightning entered the current four-game homestand with a big opportunity to gain some ground in the playoff race and stash points in a building that the team has had resounding success in over the past decade.

After winning the first two games against the Los Angeles Kings and New Jersey Devils, the Bolts skated to a 5-1 victory over the Anaheim Ducks Saturday night at AMALIE Arena for a third-straight win.

Three-game win streaks haven’t been easy to come by this season for the Bolts. In fact, this streak ties the longest win streak they’ve had all year. They had done it just twice before Saturday night.

Now, the team will enjoy four days off and have a chance to record the longest win streak of the season when they battle the Minnesota Wild Thursday night in Tampa.

But before we get there, let’s take a look back at how the Lightning earned that third-straight win Saturday night against Anaheim.

In the opening 20 minutes, neither team was able to find the back of the net with Tampa Bay looking a little less engaged than head coach Jon Cooper would have liked. Speaking to Cooper and a few players after the game, it was clear that a message was sent in the locker room during the first intermission.

Following that message, the Bolts responded in the middle frame, outscoring the Ducks 3-1 with three power-play goals to take a two-goal lead into the third period.

Victor Hedman got things started at the 5:09 mark of the second when he took a pass from Steven Stamkos and hammered a one-timer from the point that went right through the five hole of Lukas Dostal to make it a 1-0 game.

After Hedman gave the Lightning the lead, it was another big, left-handed defenseman that made an impact play for Tampa Bay, and it may not be one that you would have thought of before the game started.

Playing in just his fourth career NHL game, Emil Lilleberg saw Brett Leason streaking up the boards and stepped up in the neutral zone before hammering the 6-foot-5, 218-pound forward with a huge, open-ice hit that got everyone on their feet.

The Bolts used that momentum, earned a power play and made it a 2-0 game a little over three minutes after the big hit.

Snapping the puck around with the man advantage, the Lightning set up in the offensive zone before Brayden Point fired a shot on goal that was stopped, but Stamkos was right on the doorstep to jump on the rebound and sneak one through the five hole of Dostal to make it 2-0 with 9:04 left in the period.

Frank Vatrano got Anaheim back within one with a power-play goal of his own at the 13:20 mark, but with Tampa Bay right back on the power play just 48 seconds later, Stamkos found the back of the net a second time to restore the two-goal lead.

Taking a pass from Nikita Kucherov, Stamkos looked to dish the puck to Brayden Point in the slot, but it deflected off the heel of Ilya Lyubushkin’s stick and ended up behind Dostal to give Stamkos his 204^th career power-play goal.

Entering the third up by two, the Lightning pushed the lead to 4-1 when Calvin de Haan netted his second goal of the season, throwing a shot towards the net from the point that snuck through traffic and got behind Dostal with 10:54 left in regulation.

With the game essentially put away, the Bolts got one last goal from Brandon Hagel, who wrapped up the 5-1 win with his 13^th goal of the season with 1:55 to go. Sending a pass down low for Nick Paul, Hagel went to the net and jumped on a loose puck before hammering it past Dostal to finish off the third-straight win for the Lightning.

Andrei Vasilevskiy got the start in goal and made 19 saves on 20 shots against to move to 12-9-0 on the season.

Going into the four-day break, Tampa Bay holds a 22-17-5 record, including a mark of 14-5-3 on home ice.

Bolts by the Numbers

• Victor Hedman scored his seventh goal of the season and is up to 40 points on the campaign (7-33—40). Hedman has now scored 31 career power-play goals, tied with Dan Boyle for the second most among all defensemen in Lightning franchise history, trailing only Pavel Kubina (33).
• Hedman’s goal was the 150^th of his career, tying him with Brad Richards for the eighth-most goals among all skaters in Lightning franchise history and tying him with Borje Salming for the third-most goals among all Swedish defensemen in NHL history.
• Steven Stamkos scored two power-play goals and added one assist, all in the second period, to boost his season point total to 41 (18-23—41). Stamkos has now scored 204 career power-play goals and is tied with Wayne Gretzky for the 17^th-most power-play goals in NHL history.
• With his three points, Stamkos became the first player in Lightning franchise history to record 100 career three-point games.
• Nikita Kucherov recorded three assists, all in the second period, and boosted his NHL-leading point total to 72 (28-44—72). Kucherov has now recorded more three-point games (10) than zero-point games (9) this season.
• With his second assist, Kucherov became the fourth player in Lightning franchise history to record 800 career points with the club.
• All three of Kucherov’s assists came on the power play, pushing his career power-play point total to 298. With the third assist, he moved passed Vincent Lecavalier and took sole possession of the third-most power-play points in Lightning franchise history.
• Brayden Point recorded one assist and pushed his season point total to 44 (20-24—44). The assist was the 269^th of Point’s career, moving him past Alex Killorn and giving him sole possession of the eighth-most assists in Lightning franchise history.
• Max Crozier made his NHL debut and logged 13:00 time on ice, recording one takeaway and one blocked shot.
• The Lightning have got a goal from a defenseman in each of the three games this homestand.

Bolts Quotes

• Steven Stamkos on Emil Lilleberg’s big hit in the second period: “He tried to do it in game one in Boston. He's not scared. Great for him. That's an element that sometimes we miss when we don't have a Cerny or a Sergy or a big body back there like we've had in the lineup regularly. He stepped in and he's done a tremendous job.”
• Stamkos on the first intermission: “Sometimes the coach has to come in and let you guys know that we need better. They have a pretty good understanding of when to push the buttons and when to lay off. We needed a little push and I think we got the response we wanted.”
• Jon Cooper on Lilleberg’s hit: “It's a physical game and he kind of brought us into the fight in a game where we felt we were not as engaged as we should've been, especially with our situation. That was a big part of the game and, like I said, I hope the guy's alright.”
• Cooper on the four-day break: “I think we've been the leader in games the entire season, so we are going to at some point have some of these breaks because teams have to catch up. It's a good time for us, especially with the amount of guys we have on the shelf.”
• Stamkos on the 3-0 start to the homestand: “This is a tough building to play in. I think the atmosphere has been great. The past four or five games, the crowd has been great and we kind of feed off that a little bit, so it's been great to see.”

Krenner’s Three Stars

1. Steven Stamkos
2. Nikita Kucherov
3. Emil Lilleberg

Lightning Look Ahead

- Thursday, January 18 vs. Minnesota Wild, 7 p.m. ET, AMALIE Arena - Buy Tickets

- Saturay, January 20 at Buffalo Sabres, 12:30 p.m. ET, KeyBank Center

- Sunday, January 21 at Detroit Red Wings, 5 p.m. ET, Little Caesars Arena