The Backcheck: Bolts ride fast start to win over Caps

After dropping Friday night's game to the Capitals in Washington, D.C., the Tampa Bay Lightning got a chance at immediate revenge and capitalized with an emphatic 6-3 win on Sunday night.
The Bolts came out with a purpose and delivered the best period of the regular season with four goals in the opening 20 minutes.

"I think we were extremely irritated by the way we played," said Lightning head coach Jon Cooper when asked about his team's response to Friday's loss. "It wasn't anything of the physical nature of what happened the game before. Were we obviously frustrated with what happened to Footer? Yes. But the person that did that wasn't in the game.
"It was how we played. It was how we got to that point. I thought our response today was what we needed."
Tampa Bay's aggressive start to the game paid dividends nearly immediately when Mikhail Sergachev opened the scoring just 1:23 into the game.
Taking a pass at the point from Steven Stamkos, Sergachev fired a quick wrist shot that got through a ton of traffic and beat Darcy Kuemper to put the Bolts up 1-0.
But that wouldn't be the only point of the period for Sergachev. He would go on to record a career-high four points, all in the first period, and tie an NHL record for the most points in a single period by a defenseman.
"It's nice, but I still got two fluky points," said a modest Sergachev after Sunday's win. "There's nothing to be happy about. I didn't kind of deserve them, but four points is nice."

Sergachev's second point of the opening frame came at the 8:19 mark when he put a perfect pass right on a platter for Nikita Kucherov, who blasted home a one-timer on the power play to expand Tampa Bay's lead to 2-0.
Through seven games at AMALIE Arena this season, Kucherov has found the scoresheet in all of them. In fact, the star winger is averaging two points per game on home ice this season with four goals and 10 assists during that seven-game span. Stamkos holds the Lightning all-time record for the longest season-opening home point streaks at 10 games.
With his primary assist, Sergachev recorded his 186th career point and passed Roman Hamrlik to take sole possession of the fourth-most points by a defenseman in Lightning franchise history.
While it was a great pass from Sergachev and a perfectly placed one-timer from Kucherov, the play all started when Brandon Hagel used his speed and tenacity to win the puck on the forecheck and find a way to get the puck to Sergachev at the point before he fed Kucherov.
Hagel has been red hot for the Bolts since making the jump to the top line with Kucherov and Brayden Point. Over his last 10 games, Hagel has found the scoresheet on eight separate occasions and racked up 12 points with five goals and seven assists.
It didn't take long for the Lightning to get a third goal up on the board with Nick Perbix lighting the lamp just 2:53 after Kucherov made it a 2-0 game.
After getting up into the rush as the Tampa Bay coaches love the defensemen to do, Perbix threw a puck towards the slot that deflected off the skate of a Washington defender and past Kuemper.
They say that when you're doing the right things on the ice, the puck bounces your way. With his numbers as of late, it's easy to see that Perbix has been doing a lot of things right. The rookie defenseman is now riding a career-long, four-game point streak with five points during that span. He has scored a goal in two straight games and recorded his first career multi-point game on Sunday.
Perbix leads all rookie defensemen in the NHL in goal scoring and is the first one to record a four-game point streak this season. His three goals this season trail only Sergachev (4) for the team lead among defensemen.
The Bolts continued to roll along when Sergachev got his second goal of the period, this time on the power play, with 3:38 remaining in the first.
With the Lightning doing an excellent job getting traffic in front of Kuemper, Sergachev took a pass from Stamkos and rifled a one-timer into the back of the net to make it 4-0. Kucherov recorded the secondary assist for his second point of the game and seventh multi-point game of the season.

Meanwhile, Stamkos also notched a multi-point night with that primary assist, which was the 499th helper of his career.
Tampa Bay held Washington to just four shots on goal in the first period, with the Capitals' first shot on goal coming with 2:46 remaining in the opening frame. The four goals for the Lightning were the most they have scored in a single period this season.
After Friday's game had some fireworks, most people expected more of the same on Sunday, and that all began at the end of the first when Pat Maroon dropped the gloves and landed some solid punches to the head of Matt Irwin.
"You just don't want anybody to be able to take liberties with your team," said Cooper. "That was talked about quite a bit.
"Patty's doing his part to make sure that doesn't happen, but it's a team thing. It's not just a one guy thing.
"Today was a step in the right direction, but it's just one game. We've got a long way to go, but it's definitely something that's been on the mind of the guys. I like the way we responded tonight."
Beyond the strong team performance, Sergachev had an opening period for the record books. Along with tying the NHL record for most points by a defenseman in a single period, Sergachev also became just the second skater in Lightning franchise history to pick up four points in the opening period. Martin St. Louis is the only other player to do so for the Bolts.
The second period slowed down in terms of goal scoring, but Tampa Bay still managed to hold Washington to just six shots on goal. The Caps would get the only goal of the period when Conor Sheary scored at the 18:04 mark to make it a 4-1 game heading into the third period.
As play continued to roll along in the final frame, another Lightning skater decided it was his turn to reach a milestone. That skater was Cole Koepke, who ripped a backhand shot into the back of the net for his first career NHL goal with 6:49 remaining in the third.

But not everyone knew it was even a goal, including Koepke. The horn didn't sound when his shot went off the post, into the net, off the camera and right back out.
In fact, Tampa Bay came right back down and scored a goal moments later with Hagel ripping a one-timer into the back of the net. But after the officials took a look at the tablet in the penalty box, it was determined that Koepke's shot did indeed go in the net and ricocheted right off the camera and out for his first career goal.
"No, I didn't," said Koepke with a laugh when asked if he knew it went in. "I just kind of had it on my backhand and I saw the goalie kind of lunge. I knew it hit his stick and then I saw it went off the camera and out, but I kind of thought it hit the pipe.
"I looked for a second. The refs didn't wave anything. Everyone else kept playing, so I got back to the bench, and I wasn't super happy. Then Coop and the guys are hitting me on the shoulder like, 'That's your goal!'
"But Hagel had just scored, so I was pretty confused for a second. But then they were like, 'No, yours went in. It hit the camera!'"
It was a well-deserved goal for Koepke, who has worked hard on the forecheck consistently, played a physical game along the boards and made some smart plays throughout the start of his NHL career. He had his father, stepmother and girlfriend in attendance to see him score the first goal that everyone knew would come for the hard-working rookie.
"He gets better every game," Cooper said. "I think he felt that the game two nights ago in Washington, he had two glorious opportunities to score, and he didn't.
"It was just a matter of time. We felt it was coming. It was great to see it tonight.
"It was weird. I don't know how they didn't see it. The puck went in the middle of the net.

"First, the refs didn't see it, but the fact that Koepke didn't celebrate was a little odd to me. But good for him. That was well-deserved and it was time."
Nick Paul went on to score an empty-net goal for the Bolts' sixth goal of the game, but Washington finished the third period with two goals of their own. The Caps scored at the 16:59 mark to make it 5-2 and then again with 2:02 remaining to make it 6-3.
"I wasn't happy with the last three minutes of the game," said Cooper. "Again, we're going to learn things as the season goes along.
"I think we learned a good lesson how to respond and now we have to learn how to really close out games. We didn't close out the game the way we should've tonight and the guy who gets stung is the goaltender.
"But the goal in this league is to win and we found a way to win tonight. Like I said, I loved the response, but we've got to be a little better at the end of games."
The Lightning got the job done on Sunday night and earned the two points. Now it's back to practice on Monday before another home game on Tuesday night against the Dallas Stars.
"We've just got to continue to build here," said Maroon. "We're a good hockey team. We've just got to tell ourselves that."