The Backcheck: Bolts rally late, defeat Kings on Perbix's OT winner

If you’ve been reading The Backcheck throughout the 2023-24 season, you’ll know that I’ve said this multiple times.

Some wins are bigger than others.

For a multitude of reasons, the Tampa Bay Lightning’s 3-2 win over the Los Angeles Kings Tuesday night was one of those wins.

After over 30 minutes of scoreless hockey to begin the contest, the Kings lit the lamp at the 11:31 mark of the second period with Phillip Danault netting his eighth goal of the season to give Los Angeles the 1-0 lead.

Following a Trevor Moore drop pass to Jordan Spence just inside the Bolts blue line, the shifty defenseman skated downhill and threw the puck into the slot, where Danault was waiting to fire a quick shot on goal and beat Andrei Vasilevskiy to put the Kings up by one.

Nearly three minutes later, Los Angeles doubled the lead and made it 2-0 with Matt Roy scoring his second goal of the season at the 14:30 mark of the second period.

Jumping into the rush, Roy crossed over the blue line and took a hard pass from Kevin Fiala before skating to the hash marks and ripping a wrist shot over the blocker of Vasilevskiy to put the Lightning down by two.

With 4:05 left in the period, the Bolts thought they got back within one when Anthony Cirelli went to the crease and jammed a loose puck past Cam Talbot and into the back of the net, but the Kings successfully challenged for goaltender interference to keep the score at 2-0 entering the third period.

As precious minutes ticked away, the chances of Tampa Bay mounting a comeback got slimmer, particularly against a team that entered Tuesday night with an outstanding road record of 13-3-1.

But it only takes one goal to get things going and the Lightning got that goal from Tyler Motte with 7:23 remaining in regulation.

After Motte forced a Los Angeles turnover in the neutral zone, Mikey Eyssimont jumped on the puck and used his speed to skate up the left boards and get around both Blake Lizotte and Drew Doughty. Just before he got behind the Kings net, Eyssimont sent a pass around Doughty and into the slot for Motte to hammer a one-timer to the far post and past Talbot and make it a 2-1 game.

Just 3:02 later, Brandon Hagel made the kind of play that has turned him into a fan-favorite in Tampa, never giving up and willing the puck into the back of the net to even the score at 2-2.

Taking a pass from Nick Perbix at the right side of the Los Angeles blue line, Hagel cut towards the slot with Pierre-Luc Dubois right on his back. Working the puck through the legs of Carl Grundstrom, Hagel maintained possession on his backhand before shifting to his forehand and forcing the puck over the goal line to tie the game with 4:21 remaining in regulation and eventually force overtime.

That “never give up” attitude from Hagel was on full display once again in overtime. Back along the right boards in the Kings zone, Hagel continued to fight off Dubois, who was all over the Bolts forward trying to steal the puck and go the other way.

Maintaining possession, Hagel sent a pass to the middle of the ice for Perbix, who was able to corral the puck off his left skate and get around Trevor Moore before shifting to his backhand and beating Talbot through the five hole, sending AMALIE Arena into a frenzy and earning the second point of the game for the Lightning.

Tampa Bay improved to 20-17-5 on the season with a home record of 12-5-3.

But quickly back to the “some games are bigger than others” topic. Hagel did break his 18-game goalless drought with an empty-net goal in Minnesota, but after scoring in the fashion he did to force overtime before making the play to set up Perbix for the game-winner, I imagine he has to be feeling pretty confident about where his game is at heading into Thursday night’s contest against New Jersey.

Then, there’s the comeback aspect. The theme of Tuesday’s morning skate was “a new season.” The game vs. the Kings was the 42^nd of the year for the Lightning and the start of the second half of the campaign. The team viewed the game as a fresh start, noting that there was nothing they could do now about the first half of the year.

Starting the second half with that kind of comeback win over a quality team like the Kings could be a great boost for the Bolts heading into a big second half.

Lastly, there’s Jon Cooper, who collected his 500^th career win Tuesday night, with all of those victories coming behind the Lightning bench. The longest tenured head coach in the NHL is just the fifth coach ever to win 500 games with a single franchise. It’s a huge accomplishment for a surefire Hall of Fame coach, who surely has many more wins to collect before it’s all said and done.

Bolts by the Numbers

• The Lightning recorded their first third-period, multi-goal comeback of the season.
• Jon Cooper became just the 29^th head coach in NHL history to record 500 career wins. Cooper (839 GC) required the third-fewest games among all head coaches in NHL history to reach the 500-win mark, trailing only Scotty Bowman (825 GC) and Bruce Boudreau (837 GC).
• Cooper reached is just the fifth coach in NHL history to record 500 wins with a single franchise and required the fewest games to reach the milestone.
• Brandon Hagel recorded his ninth multi-point game of the season with one goal and one assist to push his point total on the year to 34 (12-22—34). Hagel is riding a three-game point streak (2-2—4) and has six points over his last seven contests (2-4—6).
• Nick Perbix recorded his second multi-point game of the season, assisting on Hagel’s game-tying goal before netting his first goal of the year with the overtime game-winner.
• After skating in his first career NHL game Saturday night in Boston, Emil Lilleberg recorded his first career NHL point with the secondary assist on Hagel’s tying goal in the third period.

Bolts Quotes

• Brandon Hagel on the second half of the season: “It's kind of a new season. Obviously, we can't deal with 41 games that already happened. We are where we are. But it starts now. No one talks about how you started. It's how you finish. Us in this room, it's kind of a fresh start. We've got 41 games to make that push and we'll talk about it at the end.”
• Jon Cooper on his coaching staffs throughout the years: “They really make everything work. The responsibilities of a head coach, they’re just different. You need to have trust in those guys and, I’m telling you, they’re the best in the business. Those 500 wins, my name will be tagged to it, but every assistant coach I’ve ever had, they probably deserve it more than me.”
• Brandon Hagel on Jon Cooper: “A guy with 500 wins, he obviously knows how to win. He knows how to win Stanley Cups. Being a young person, like I said, I wouldn't want any other coach coaching me.”
• Jon Cooper on earning all 500 wins with the Lightning: “I never take that for granted. It’s a privilege to be in this league, but to be able to leave the arena and go to the same house every single day for the last 11 or 12 years or whatever it’s been, it’s probably not the norm. I’m extremely fortunate to be able to be in this situation with the ownership and management that has been in place. There’s a lot of trust. My trust in them and their trust in me, I think that’s a big reason why this has worked for a decade. There have been bumps along the way. There have. But I think that the belief in each other is what’s kept us strong and I’m truly thankful that I’ve got to experience all 500 here.”

Krenner’s Three Stars

1. Brandon Hagel
2. Nick Perbix
3. Erik Cernak

Lightning Look Ahead

• Thursday, January 11 vs. New Jersey Devils, 7 p.m. ET, AMALIE Arena - Buy Tickets
• Saturday, January 13 vs. Anaheim Ducks, 7 p.m. ET, AMALIE Arena - Buy Tickets
• Thursday, January 18 vs. Minnesota Wild, 7 p.m. ET, AMALIE Arena - Buy Tickets