The Backcheck: Bolts stun Flyers in shutout victory

After falling to the Calgary Flames Thursday night, the Tampa Bay Lightning responded emphatically with a 7-0 win over the Philadelphia Flyers Saturday night on Channelside Drive.

The Bolts gave the fans inside AMALIE Arena plenty to cheer about over the first 20 minutes, lighting the lamp four times in the opening 10:49 for the second-fastest four goals to start a game in franchise history.

Victor Hedman got things going just 1:49 into the first period with his 11th goal of the season, taking a pass from Nikita Kucherov at the top of the circles before wiring a perfect shot through traffic and into the top left corner to give the Lightning an early 1-0 lead with Darren Raddysh recording the secondary assist.

With Ronnie Attard in the penalty box for holding Anthony Cirelli, the Bolts went up 2-0 with Nick Paul scoring his career-high 18th goal of the season.

Following a shot from the point from Raddysh, trade deadline acquisition Anthony Duclair jabbed at the rebound in front before Paul jumped on the loose puck and lifted a backhand over the pad of Samuel Ersson with 14:05 remaining in the opening period.

Just over three minutes later, Conor Sheary found the back of the net for the second-consecutive game. After a pass from Raddysh was deflected up into the air, Sheary tracked the puck and fought through a check by Scott Laughton before firing a shot from the top of the circles that leaked through Ersson and put the Lightning up 3-0 with 10:50 left in the first.

Only 1:39 later, Brayden Point scored a power-play goal to extend the lead to 4-0. After Steven Stamkos took a pass from Hedman and rifled his patented one-timer off the pad of Ersson, Point was right there in the slot to grab the rebound and quickly lift the puck over the glove of Erssonfor his 33rd goal of the year.

Tampa Bay continued applying pressure in the second period and got rewarded with Duclair once again showing up on the scoresheet, only this time he was the one scoring the goal.

When Marc Staal fumbled a puck at the Lightning blue line, Stamkos got on his horse for a footrace to the loose puck and beat Staal before a poke check from Felix Sandstrom, who had entered the game in relief of Ersson.

But as the puck went to the corner in the Flyers zone, Stamkos stuck with the play and gained possession before sending a hard dish to the back door, where Duclair was waiting to redirect the pass over the pad of Sandstrom and into the back of the net for his first goal with the Bolts, making it a 5-0 game.

Keeping things rolling into the third period, Hedman got his second goal of the night with 12:27 remaining in regulation to push the Lightning lead to 6-0.

After Point jumped on a clear up the boards from Raddysh and darted down the ice, he found Hedman trailing the play near the top of the circles and sent a pass to the big defenseman, who wired a shot to the far post to make it 6-0 with his 12th goal of the year.

Brandon Hagel wrapped up the scoring less than a minute later, scoring a power-play goal to put a bow on the 7-0 win.

With the Bolts on the power play, Hagel took a pass from Raddysh near the top of the left circle and fired a shot through traffic that beat Sandstrom for his 23rd goal of the season.

Andrei Vasilevskiy was perfect between the pipes for Tampa Bay, making 25 saves on 25 shots against for his second shutout of the season and 34th of his illustrious career.  

Bolts by the Numbers

- Darren Raddysh logged a career-high five assists and became the first defenseman in Lightning franchise history to do so while also becoming the first skater in franchise history to record five helpers on home ice. Raddysh tied the Tampa Bay franchise record for assists in a single period with three in the opening frame and became the first defenseman in Bolts history to log three helpers in a single period. Raddysh is one of just six defensemen in the past 20 years with three points through the first 9:10 of play or faster, joining Quinn Hughes, K'Andre Miller, Michael Stone, Noah Hanifin and Rostislav Klesla. Raddysh is just the third player in Lightning franchise history to post five assists in a single game, joining Mark Recchi and Martin St. Louis.

- Victor Hedman scored two goals and picked up one assist to push his season point total to 64 (12-52—64). Hedman’s game-opening tally was the 28th game-winning goal of his career, tying Larry Robinson (MTL) for the 11th-most by a defenseman with a single franchise in NHL history.

- Nikita Kucherov extended his point streak to eight games with one assist (2-11—13). The All-Star winger is now up to 107 points on the season (38-69—107) and has found the scoresheet in 18 of his last 19 contests (10-22—32).

- Steven Stamkos picked up two assists for the 300th multi-point game of his career, the most in Lightning franchise history. Stamkos joined Sidney Crosby (461), Alex Ovechkin (427), Evgeni Malkin (342) and Patrick Kane (337) as the only active players to hit the milestone. Stamkos has points in each of his last three games (0-4—4) and is up to 55 points on the campaign (24-31—55).

- Anthony Duclair and Matt Dumba both made their Lightning debut after being acquired at the trade deadline. Duclair scored a goal and added one assist while Dumba got in a fight and had a +1 rating with two hits in 20:04 time on ice.

- Brayden Point scored a goal and added an assist for his 17th multi-point game of the season. Point is up to 67 points on the year (33-34—67).

- Nick Paul netted his career-high 18th goal of the season (18-17—35).

- Conor Sheary scored a goal for the second-straight game and is up to 13 points on the year (3-10—13).

- Mikey Eyssimont picked up two assists to push his season point total to 19 (9-10—19).

- Brandon Hagel scored a power-play goal and is up to 61 points on the year (23-38—61).

Bolts Quotes

- Jon Cooper: “We needed that one. A lot of things went our way. We got that early one and it was a good boost for our power play as well. At some point, we were going to have to break out. For us, we’ve gone a little dry for the last ten games or so, so it was great that they took advantage of those early penalties that Philly took. You get that lead, and we’re home and it was a big thing for us to try to lock that sucker down. The Flyers didn't score, but they pushed and pushed and pushed in the last half of the first, and a lot of the second period, so you have to give Vas credit for shutting the door because Philly didn't quit.”

- Victor Hedman: “It's a sigh of relief for everyone with the trade deadline behind you. This is our group now and we've just got to move forward. There's just one gear ahead and that's full steam. We've just got to make sure that we keep doing this like we did today.”

- Matt Dumba on being teammates with his close friend Anthony Duclair: “I'm pumped. We've talked about it for years. We've had some good summers together and been boys for a long time now. For this to happen, it's just unreal.”

- Anthony Duclair on getting focused for his first game after being traded: “Pretty easy. When you look around the room at guys like Stammer, Heddy and Vasy, it's real easy to be motivated, get right out there and play winning hockey.”

Krenner’s Three Stars

1. Darren Raddysh

2. Victor Hedman

3. Anthony Duclair

Lightning Look Ahead

- Thursday, March 14 vs. New York Rangers, 7 p.m. ET, AMALIE Arena

- Saturday, March 16 at Florida Panthers, 6 p.m. ET, Amerant Bank Center

- Tuesday, March 19 at Vegas Golden Knights, 10 p.m. ET, T-Mobile Arena