The Canucks evened the score at 1-1 less than five minutes later when Andrei Kuzmenko scored a power-play goal at the 6:08 mark of the first, blasting a one-timer past Andrei Vasilevskiy from the left circle for his fifth goal of the year.
Both teams went to their respective locker rooms for the first intermission with the score tied at one, but the Lightning held a shot advantage of 11-4 through the opening 20 minutes.
In the second period, the Bolts took a step back, getting outshot 14-5 by the Canucks and allowing two goals from Brock Boeser at the 9:29 and 16:52 marks of the middle frame. Taking a 3-1 lead into the third period, Vancouver boasted a record of 15-0-0 when leading after 40 minutes this season.
The Lightning were unable to put a dent in that unbeaten record. While the Bolts made a valiant effort in trying to claw their way back into the game, Demko was big in net for the Canucks and made a number of impressive saves throughout the final 20 minutes to maintain the two-goal lead.
Boeser capped off the night with an empty-net goal to complete his hat trick with 1:18 remaining in regulation.
Tampa Bay finished the night with a 29-22 shot advantage but lost the special teams battle, finishing the night 0-for-3 on the power play and 1-for-2 on the penalty kill.
Andrei Vasilevskiy started his eighth game of the season and made 18 saves on 21 shots against. Victor Hedman missed the contest and is day-to-day with an upper-body injury.
The Lightning now hold a 13-12-5 record on the season with a road record of 5-9-2.
Bolts by the Numbers
- Brayden Point’s game-opening goal marked the third time this season that he’s opened the scoring, tied with Anthony Cirelli and Nikita Kucherov for the Lightning team lead.
- In the absence of Victor Hedman, Mikhail Sergachev logged a season-high 26:37 time on ice and picked up his 16th assist of the season. The 26:37 TOI was the 11th-highest regular-season total of Sergachev’s career.
- Brandon Hagel extended his point streak to three games with the secondary assist on Point’s goal. Hagel has notched four assists over his last three contests and is tied with Victor Hedman for the third-most points on the team (27).
- Mitchell Chaffee made his Lightning debut and played in just his third career NHL game, logging 6:56 time on ice, blocking one shot and recording two hits.
Bolts Quotes
- Jon Cooper: “When we lose the special teams war in games, it’s tough for us. At times this year, we’ve fought it a little bit scoring 5-on-5. We kind of got the puck 175-180 feet and just couldn’t get it across the line during the last 20.”
- Brayden Point: “I thought we had stretches where we were good. I thought, in the second period, we kind of got away from our game. A lot of turnovers there. I think, in the first, what we were doing so well was just getting pucks behind them and letting our forecheck do some work. I thought we got away from that.”
- Darren Raddysh: “They have a lot of D that jump up and if we’re turning pucks over, it’s 3-on-2s and 4-on-2s. It’s hard to win a hockey game when you’re kind of playing on your back foot. I think that was on us in the second period. We’ve got to learn from that and move on.”
