The Backcheck: Lightning get second-straight shutout against the Sharks

It was a dominant night for the Tampa Bay Lightning at AMALIE Arena Thursday with the Bolts skating to a 6-0 victory over the San Jose Sharks, pushing their point streak to five straight games, improving to 3-0-1 on the homestand and winning back-to-back contests for the first time this season.

Tampa Bay opened the scoring early with Brayden Point lighting the lamp for the second-straight game off a pass from Mikhail Sergachev. After Nick Perbix found Sergachev at the center point with a D-to-D pass, Sergachev moved the puck to the right faceoff dot for Point, who waited patiently before picking his spot and wiring a shot off the far post and past Mackenzie Blackwood to open the scoring just 1:41 into the game.

Less than five minutes later, Mikey Eyssimont doubled Tampa Bay’s lead with his second goal of the campaign. Nick Perbix sent a pass across the blue line for Calvin de Haan, who sifted a shot towards that net, where Eyssimont was waiting to redirect the puck past Blackwood, despite being cross-checked in the back and falling to the ice. With the primary assist, de Haan recorded his first point as a member of the Lightning.

After back to-back penalties from the Sharks put the Lightning on a 5-on-3 power play near the end of the first period, it was Steven Stamkos who made it a 3-0 game with his 196^th career power-play goal. Taking a pass from Kucherov in his regular spot on the power play at the left circle, Stamkos picked his spot and rifled a wrist shot right under the arm of Blackwood with 41.4 seconds left in the first.

Going into the second period with a 3-0 lead, the Bolts didn’t take their foot off the gas and Brandon Hagel pushed the lead to 4-0 just 4:01 into the middle frame. 

Following a beautiful stretch pass with Victor Hedman finding Alex Barré-Boulet at the San Jose blue line, Barré-Boulet sent a saucer pass right over the stick of the San Jose defender to Hagel, who calmly walked in alone on Blackwood and placed a perfect shot into the top right corner for his fifth goal of the season.

Blackwood’s night came to an end 3:28 later with Nick Paul scoring his fifth goal of the year right in front of the net. After former Bolts defenseman Jan Rutta blocked a heavy one-timer from Stamkos, the Lightning captain found Paul in front of the net before the power forward made a move to the backhand and scored to make it a 5-0 game.

With 14:16 remaining in regulation, Luke Glendening got his first goal with Tampa Bay when he redirected a shot from Conor Sheary past Kaapo Kahkonen to seal the 6-0 win for the Lightning.

Between the pipes on the other end of the ice, Jonas Johansson made 23 saves for his second-straight shutout. Coming into the season, the new Bolts goaltender had one career NHL shutout. Now, he’s tied for the league lead with two as he continues to do a fantastic job filling in for Andrei Vasilevskiy.

Bolts Quotes

Jon Cooper: “There's a lot of good things. I liked the way we played in our end again. We're not spending a whole ton of time in there. When we do, we're not really giving up a whole lot and if we do give something up, the goalie's there for us.”

Steven Stamkos: “These are games that hopefully build some confidence in what you want to achieve going forward. Work on some system things. We've been talking a lot about some changes we've made and this was a game that was 4 or 5 nothing kind of halfway through the game. You just don't want to cheat out there and I thought we did a good job of sticking to our structure.”

Mikey Eyssimont: “We're starting to feel where guys are and know where their tendencies are on the ice. But I think for the most part, it's just sticking to our identity. I think we're finding that work ethic.”

Nick Perbix on Jonas Johansson: “Even before the shutouts, I think he was playing great. I mean, that Toronto game, he was the one he was the sole reason why we got that point.”

Bolts by the Numbers

• Steven Stamkos scored his 196^th career power-play goal and passed Brett Hull (195) for the seventh-most among players with a single franchise in NHL history.
• Victor Hedman recorded his 39^th career multi-assist period and tied Martin St. Louis for the second most in Lightning history. Steven Stamkos tops the list with 40.
• Victor Hedman is up to eight assists on the season, the most among all NHL defensemen, while his nine points are tied for first.
• Nikita Kucherov’s 11 points are tied for the fifth-most among all NHL skaters.
• Jonas Johansson became the first Lightning goaltender to record back-to-back shutouts since Andrei Vasilevskiy blanked Philadelphia on November 23, 2021 before shutting out Seattle on November 26, 2021.

Krenner’s Three Stars

1. Victor Hedman
2. Mikey Eyssimont
3. Steven Stamkos

Lightning Look Ahead

Monday, October 30 vs. Seattle Kraken, 7 p.m. ET, AMALIE Arena

Thursday, November 2 at Columbus Blue Jackets, 7 p.m. ET, Nationwide Arena

Saturday, November 4 at Ottawa Senators, 7 p.m. ET, Canadian Tire Centre