The Backcheck: The Anthony Cirelli game

The Tampa Bay Lightning opened a four-game road trip on Saturday afternoon with a big, 3-1 win over the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center to sweep the season series.
The Bolts entered this trip knowing they have to be better on the road, where Tampa Bay had a 12-12-0 record entering Saturday's contest. Behind a strong performance from Andrei Vasilevskiy and a three-point afternoon from Anthony Cirelli, the Lightning opened the trip with two points and did so in dramatic fashion.

After a scoreless first period that saw the Bolts successfully kill off two tripping penalties, Cirelli opened the scoring with a beauty at the 10:13 mark of the second period to give Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead.
After a nice lead pass in the neutral zone from Brandon Hagel sent Cirelli in all alone, the Lightning forward made a perfect move to the backhand that fooled Scott Wedgewood and left Cirelli with an open net to bury his fourth goal of the season.
The momentum didn't last long, however, as Dallas came back and tied the game just 2:05 after Cirelli opened the scoring. The Stars broke into the Tampa Bay zone on a 3-on-1 before Jamie Benn fired a shot past Vasilevskiy to even the score with 7:42 left in the middle frame.
That would be the only shot to beat Vasilevskiy on Saturday afternoon. The All-Star goaltender was extremely sharp for a second-straight game, making some huge stops throughout the contest to keep the game close. Since the 7-1 loss to the Florida Panthers, Vasilevskiy has stopped 58 of 59 shots for a .983 save percentage with a 0.50 goals against average.

"Vasy, ever since I've been here, every single game, he's keeping us in it," said Cirelli. "He's there making huge saves for us when we do screw up a bit.
"He's the backbone there for us and we know we can count on him, but we have to do a better job in front of him limiting those chances."
In a tight checking third period that saw the Bolts outshoot Dallas 15-5, Tampa Bay broke through and took a 2-1 lead late in the game with just 43.2 seconds remaining. Over the previous few minutes leading up to the goal, the Lightning were maintaining offensive zone time and winning puck battles along the boards to keep possession.
With the Stars back on their heels, Alex Killorn made a great pass across the offensive zone to Victor Hedman. After Wedgewood came out to challenge Hedman, the big defenseman opened his hips and quickly maneuvered around the back of the net before throwing the puck into the slot, where Cirelli was able to win a battle against Roope Hintz and get his stick on the puck to give Tampa Bay the late lead.
"I think all five guys controlled the puck there for a little bit," Cirelli said. "I think Killer hit Heddy back door and then Heddy makes an unbelievable move around the D and around the goalie and I was lucky enough to just bang it in.
"I just finished telling Heddy, I didn't see it. He just put it right on my stick and it was just kind of lucky that it happened at the exact same time. That was a hell of a play by him."

For Lightning head coach Jon Cooper, that goal was earned by his team's strong play throughout the second half of the third period.
"That goal was an accumulation of what happened over the last seven minutes of the period," said Cooper. "Our guys really dug in.
"That's a good team over there, our goalie kept us in it at that point and the big boys took over after that. We leaned on them and had so many close chances to score.
"It was fitting that Anthony got it. He was the best player on the ice tonight."
As for Hedman, that assist will likely be remembered more than some others. With his helper, he recorded career assist number 500, becoming just the 33rd defenseman in NHL history to hit the milestone. Hedman joins Martin St. Louis and Steven Stamkos as the only players in Lightning franchise history to tally 500 assists with the club and just the 22nd defenseman in NHL history to hit the mark in less than 1,000 games.
"I'm happy it came in a big game like this, late in the game," Hedman said. "Those are the moments you live for. That was a great feeling.
"Like I said, to do it for this club over the last 14 years, a lot of credit goes to the guys that put the pucks in the net.
"I couldn't really reach around. I was kind of off balance. I knew we had guys in front, and I knew Wedgy was on the first post, so I was just hoping it would maybe hit a stick or a skate or something and go in the net. I did not see him touch it, but great play by him."

Brandon Hagel added an empty-net goal in the final seconds of the game to wrap up the 3-1 win over the Stars. Nikita Kucherov picked up an assist on Hagel's empty-net goal and extended his point streak to 10 games.
The road doesn't stop here for the Lightning after back-to-back wins over some big-time teams in the Western Conference in the Stars and Colorado Avalanche. Tampa Bay will travel to Denver to face off with the Avs for a second time on Tuesday night at 9 p.m. ET.
"Two of the best teams in this Conference," said Hedman. "Big bounce back after that Florida game and that San Jose game.
"We're a team that's very stubborn when we lose games. We want to bounce back. Playing against two great teams like this says a lot about the character we have in our room and what we can do."
We'll see how Tampa Bay fares against a Colorado team that will certainly be motivated following a 5-0 shutout loss to the Bolts on Thursday. Either way, the past few games for the Lightning have been a resounding success following back-to-back losses coming out of the All-Star break.
"Arguably the two best teams you might see in the [Western Conference,]" said Cooper. "I've been proud of our guys. The week didn't start out great, but the group that we have here dug their heels in this week.
"That's one on the road and we have three more. But that's a great way to start it."