The Backcheck: Bolts finish perfect homestand with a win over the Wild

Kicking off the second half of the season with a four-game homestand, the Tampa Bay Lightning needed to take care of business on home ice and bank some points for the playoff push. The Bolts did exactly that, finishing the four-game stretch with a perfect 4-0-0 record after logging a 7-3 win over the Minnesota Wild Thursday night at AMALIE Arena.

Minnesota opened the scoring 5:17 into the first period when Brock Faber collected the puck at the right point and sent a crafty pass across the offensive zone and onto the tape of Joel Eriksson Ek, who fired a quick shot past the outstretched blocker of Andrei Vasilevskiy to give the Wild a 1-0 lead.

But Tampa Bay didn’t blink and answered immediately with Victor Hedman netting his eighth goal of the season just 55 seconds later to even the score at 1-1.

With the Lightning’s top line controlling the puck on an extended shift in the Minnesota zone, Brayden Point sent a pass to the point for Hedman, who hammered a one-timer past Filip Gustavsson to tie the game with 13:48 remaining in the opening frame.

Those would be the only two goals of the first period, with both teams recording 11 shots on net in a pretty even 20 minutes of hockey.

After each team scored just one goal in the opening frame, the Lightning and Wild picked up the offense in the second period, combining for five goals with Tampa Bay holding a 4-3 lead after 40 minutes.

With 16 seconds of power-play time rolling into the start of the second period, the Lightning took advantage with Anthony Cirelli netting his ninth goal of the season just as the Wild penalty was set to expire.

Taking a nice pass through the neutral zone from Point, Cirelli accelerated into the offensive zone and ripped a shot past the blocker of Gustavsson to give the Bolts a 2-1 lead exactly 16 seconds into the period.

Only 3:04 later, Waltteri Merelä capitalized on his opportunity after being recalled by Tampa Bay on Tuesday and playing in his first NHL game since mid-November.

Following a dump into the Minnesota zone by Nick Perbix, Conor Sheary quickly jumped on the puck near the left boards and saw Merelä streaking towards the Wild net. Sheary sent a pass across the offensive zone right onto the tape of Merelä, who tallied his first career NHL goal and point with a quick one-timer to the far post.

With the Lightning starting to pull away, Marco Rossi got Minnesota back within one when he scored his 13th goal of the season at the 10:52 mark of the second to make it a 3-2 game.

But, once again, Tampa Bay had an immediate answer and restored the two-goal lead with Point logging his 21st goal of the season less than two minutes later.

Aggressive on the forecheck, Steven Stamkos darted behind the Wild net and sent Brock Faber to the ice with a solid body check, allowing Nikita Kucherov to grab the puck and quickly send a pass to the front of the net for Point, who was denied on his initial shot but stuck with it and buried his own rebound top shelf to make it a 4-2 game with 7:19 left in the second.

As it looked like the Bolts were going to head to the locker room with a multi-goal lead after 40 minutes, Jake Middleton found the back of the net with less than 20 seconds remaining in the period to shrink the lead to 4-3.

Starting the final period on the power play, the Lightning went back up by two when Stamkos took a pass from Kucherov and fired a one-timer past Gustavsson 1:09 into the third period, pushing the score to 5-3. The Bolts wouldn’t look back from there.

Mikey Eyssimont scored Tampa Bay’s third power-play goal of the night and made it a 6-3 game 5:50 later when he watched a rebound off a shot from Cirelli go straight into the air before patiently waiting and jamming the puck home once it got below the crossbar for his seventh goal of the year.

Cirelli capped things off and picked up his third point of the night with 2:08 remining in regulation when Brandon Hagel sent a pass to the front that went off the skate of Middleton and right to Cirelli, who hit the 10-goal mark on the season with Hedman recording the secondary helper.

Vasilevskiy picked up his 13th win of the season with 30 saves on 33 shots against.

Bolts by the Numbers

- Nikita Kucherov recorded three assists and continues to lead the NHL with 75 points on the season (28-47—75). With his third assist of the game, Kucherov picked up his 500thcareer helper, making him just the fourth player in Lightning franchise history to record 500 assists with the club, along with Martin St. Louis (588), Steven Stamkos (564) and Victor Hedman (544).

- Kucherov hit the 500-assist mark in his 688th career game, requiring the third-fewest games among all active NHL skaters to hit the milestone, trailing only Connor McDavid (527 GP) and Sidney Crosby (554 GP).

- Victor Hedman recorded his seventh career four-point game with one goal and three assists, tying Roman Josi for the second-most four-point games among all active NHL defensemen. Erik Karlsson (10) is the only active D-man with more.

- Hedman’s goal was the 151st of his career, moving him past Brad Richards and giving him sole possession of the eighth-most goals in Lightning franchise history. With the goal, he also passed Borje Salming to take sole possession of the third-most goals by a Swedish defenseman in NHL history.

- Hedman is up to 44 points on the season (8-36—44), the third-most points among all NHL defensemen this season. His 36 assists rank fourth among all NHL D-men.

- Brayden Point picked up his sixth three-point game of the season with one goal and two assists. He has now recorded 40 career three-point games, good for fourth all-time in Lightning franchise history behind Steven Stamkos (100), Nikita Kucherov (77), Martin St. Louis (73) and Vincent Lecavalier (53).

- Point is riding a three-game point streak (2-3—5) and has 17 points over his last 17 contests (9-8—17). With 47 points on the season (21-26—47), Point ranks second in goals and points among all Lightning skaters, while his 26 helpers are good for third.

- Steven Stamkos scored his 10th power-play goal and 19th goal of the season to push his season point total to 42 (19-23—42). Stamkos is up to 205 career power-play goals and is now tied with Joe Sakic for the fifth-most power-play goals with a single franchise in NHL history.

- Anthony Cirelli snapped a 14-game goalless drought with a three-point night, scoring two goals and adding one assist. The game marked the fifth three-point outing of Cirelli’s career and first of the season. He’s up to 20 points on the season (10-10—20).

- Playing his first game with the Lightning since mid-November, Waltteri Merelä logged his first career NHL goal and recorded his first career NHL point in the process. Prior to his call-up, Merelä played 23 games with the Syracuse Crunch and collected 16 points (6-10—16).

- Nick Perbix recorded one assist and extended his point streak to four games (1-5—6), matching the longest point streak of his career set last season.

- Darren Raddysh recorded one assist and extended his point streak to three games (1-2—3), tied for the longest point streak of his career. with one assist. He’s up to 15 points this season (3-12—15).

Bolts Quotes

- Jon Cooper: “I'd say the biggest thing, regardless of who's in the lineup, we're just not turning the puck over and we're playing a much more responsible game. When you do that, in the end, you're just limiting your chances to give freebies to the other team, which has been an issue for us, especially in the first half. We've limited that. When we manage the puck, we're actually doing okay.”

- Waltteri Merelä on his first NHL goal: “A little bit of weight kind of off my shoulders. I don't really view it as pressure. Just come here and try to help the team win. There's a reason I've been here and played 15 games, so I just need to keep doing what I can do.”

- Brayden Point: “I think we’re just starting to play with a little more confidence. We’ve tightened up defensively. We’re still giving up some chances, but a lot less than we were when we were kind of struggling. It’s good to see us find some confidence and go on a little bit of a win streak here. Hopefully we can keep it going. We know we have to have a good second half to compete for a playoff spot. I really like the way it’s gone so far.”

Krenner’s Three Stars

1. Victor Hedman

2. Nikita Kucherov

3. Brayden Point

Lightning Look Ahead

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

- Sunday, January 21 at Detroit Red Wings, 7 p.m. ET, Little Caesars Arena

- Tuesday, January 23 at Philadelphia Flyers, 7 p.m. ET, Wells Fargo Center