The Backcheck: Lightning make it a two-win weekend

It wasn't perfect, but the Tampa Bay Lightning skated to a second-straight win on Saturday night with a 5-3 victory over the New York Islanders. There were some turnovers and sloppy execution along the way, but the Bolts did what great teams do. They found a way to win.

"We didn't execute," said Tampa Bay head coach Jon Cooper. "I thought we were extremely opportunistic. We didn't really do ourselves any favors on two of the goals against. We just basically handed it right to them. Again, that's part of execution.
"But in saying that, you've got to find ways to win when you're not at your best. The Islanders, they threw everything at us. I thought Moose was a wall back there for us.
"You're going to have to grind out some points when you don't have your A--game and we did that tonight with a lot of help from Moose."
Entering Saturday's contest, Bolts captain Steven Stamkos had scored seven of the Lightning's 13 goals through five games. With a three-game California road trip next week, Tampa Bay really needed to get some secondary scoring going to balance out the offense.
Following a two-goal performance in Friday night's 3-2 win over Florida, Brayden Point mentioned the need for more scoring throughout the lineup.
"We need other guys to step up," Point said. "We've got one guy scoring the majority of our goals and guys need to produce. That's what we're paid to do and we need to start doing it."
In Saturday's win over New York, Brandon Hagel, Alex Killorn and Nick Paul all scored their first goals of the year. Corey Perry recorded his second goal of the year and Point added his third goal in the past two games. In total, 11 of the Lightning's 18 skaters picked up a point in the win.
"[I'm] not so sure we were in the zone a ton tonight, but every time we went in, we did a lot of good things to score those goals and that's what you want from your guys," said Cooper. "It was good. I think guys start gripping the sticks a bit, but I think three of the players tonight got their first. When that happens, usually guys take a breath and good things happen after that, so hopefully that'll continue in California."
Killorn is coming off the best regular season of his career in which he recorded career-highs in goals (25), assists (34) and points (59), but he failed to find the back of the net in 23 games during last year's Stanley Cup Playoffs, finishing the postseason with four assists.
"It's a weight off my shoulders, for sure," Killorn said after Saturday's win. "You start to think you may never score again in the NHL the way things were going, but now I'll probably play a little bit more free knowing I got this one out of the way."
Killorn's goal was a big one for the Lightning.
The Bolts entered the third period up by two after climbing to a 4-2 lead after 40 minutes. Just four days earlier, the Lightning had a 2-0 lead against the Philadelphia Flyers in the second period before giving up three straight goals, including two in the third period, to lose 3-2 in regulation.
"There's a lot of guys on the ice that dress every night that have done a lot of great things for us," said Cooper after Tuesday's disappointing loss to the Flyers. "Maybe there's a little bit more load on their shoulders, but it's on them.
"They've got to stand up. They've been in this room for a long time and they've got to lead this team to victory. Tonight, we just didn't do that."
Trailing by two goals on Saturday, the Islanders got within one just 5:45 into the third period on a goal from Ryan Pulock. The Bolts hadn't even registered a shot on goal in the third when Pulock made it a one-goal game.
But this time, Killorn was the one to stand up and make a big play to lock up the victory for Tampa Bay.
Following a nice kick save from Brian Elliott, who was exceptional with 32 saves, the Bolts shot up the ice with Mikhail Sergachev darting through the neutral zone. Sergachev dished the puck over to Paul, who drove hard to the net and had his shot blocked, but Killorn was right there to jump on the loose puck and fire an absolute dart into the top right corner and make it a 5-3 game with 5:52 remaining.

"I wasn't going to be denied," Killorn said with a laugh. "I shot it probably as hard as I've ever shot a puck, so happy with that."
Cooper certainly knows the importance of a player like Killorn. The two have been together since winning the Calder Cup with the Norfolk Admirals over a decade ago.
"Good for him," Cooper said. "To be honest, I think Killer's been exceptional for us in a lot of areas on the ice. On the penalty kill, puck possession - there's been so many good things.
"But so many players would like to look on the scoresheet and see a goal by their name. He is one of those players that has definitely deserved to score and he did tonight."
Another player who deserved to see their name on the scoresheet was Hagel, who has gotten great chances but been a little snakebitten to open the season. Playing on a line with Point and Nikita Kucherov, Hagel has been effective with his skating, forechecking and willingness to get to the dirty areas of the ice. He recorded his first two points of the season on Saturday with a goal and an assist.
"Hages has done an exceptional job for us," Cooper explained. "It takes players a little bit of time to find their way with our team, but he has a definitive role. Now he's stepped into a little bit more of an offensive role.
"But if you go by expected goals and things like that, ironically, it's higher in Tampa than it was in Chicago. So technically, he should have more goals with us than he did there.
"For whatever reason, there's ebbs and flows, but he's getting his chances. They just haven't been going in. That's why you're fired up when they go in for him like tonight.
"He's played well. He works. He retrieves pucks. He does all these things. They just haven't gone in for him, so you hope that getting one like he did tonight will trigger something because he's been around the net and he's had his chances."
Hagel's ability to retrieve pucks was on full display on the Lightning's first goal of the night. After making a nice move to spin around a speedy Mat Barzal, Hagel dumped the puck in deep, stole it from an Islanders defender below the goal line and fed Kucherov, who had his shot stopped by Sorokin before Point was right there on the doorstep to score on the rebound.
Kucherov earned the primary assist to extend his point/assist streak to four games with seven assists during that span. Point finished the night with a goal and an assist after scoring twice on Friday night at Florida. Victor Hedman extended his point/assist streak to five games with five assists during those five contests.

Hagel was acquired at last year's trade deadline with Paul, who also recorded two points (1G, 1A) on Saturday, including the game-winning goal as late as possible in the second period.
After a big, open-ice hit from Cole Koepke in the neutral zone, Ross Colton threw a hit of his own and won the puck near the Lightning blue line before dishing it over to Paul, who ripped a shot on goal and scored with 0.1 seconds left in the second period.
"Koepke with a big hit," Cooper explained. "Colton stayed with it. Big hit. We came from underneath and then Paul shot a puck. When you start repeating that kind of behavior, good things will happen. That's why he scored.
"Plus, it's a little bit of a deflator too with 0.1 seconds and you were down one, now you're down two. I just liked the no quit in the play. They finished the period out and they got rewarded."
The Lightning needed the offense to start getting distributed across four lines. While the execution still needs work, the Bolts are taking steps in the right direction following the disappointing loss against Philadelphia with two straight wins against the Panthers and Islanders.
The Bolts will now head to California for a three-game road trip that starts on Tuesday in Los Angeles against the Kings. Tampa Bay will play another back-to-back with a game against Anaheim on Wednesday before finishing the road trip against the San Jose Sharks on Saturday.
"I think last night (Friday) was a huge momentum shift for our season," Killorn said on Saturday. "Going 1-4 is a lot different than 2-3 and I think that gave us confidence coming into tonight.
"Now, we're .500 and basically the season starts over. Now we've got a chance to go on a west coast swing and get some more points."
NOTEWORTHY:After missing Saturday's game against the Islanders, Cooper said he expects Erik Cernak to be OK for the game against the Kings on Tuesday.