A stellar performance from Ben Bishop and an all-around good effort from the skaters in front of him led the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 2-1 victory over the Minnesota Wild on Saturday night. Able to snap their two-game losing streak, the Bolts snagged their fourteenth win of the season and kept pace with the Montreal Canadiens in the Atlantic Division race.
Thanks in large part to a hot start, Tampa was able to maintain a possession advantage all night long. Whenever the Wild would generate shot attempts, the Lightning would answer right back:
As the chart clearly shows, the Lightning never allowed Minnesota to run away with things. That kept them in the tight game and ultimately allowed them to grab a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
While Tampa did jump out to that early lead in the Corsi department, it was the Wild who drew first blood where it counts. After battling through a scoreless first frame, Zach Parise scored his seventh of the season at the 3:11 mark of the second period. A brutal giveaway by Mark Barberio and a questionable recovery effort from Radko Gudas allowed Thomas Vanek and Parise to create what was a very pretty goal. The result was a 1-0 Minnesota lead.
For stretches in the second period, as seen on the aforementioned chart, the Wild didn’t give the Lightning much room to move. Their ability to clog the neutral zone snuffed out any and all Tampa offense. As Raw Charge’s Kyle Alexander noted on Twitter, it was reminiscent of the team’s first round series against the Montreal Canadiens last year.
The difference between that playoff series and Saturday night was that Jon Cooper and his team adjusted. They changed things up. They found the room they needed.
It started with a Steven Stamkos power play goal at 13:42 in that second frame. Assisted nicely by Jason Garrison and Anton Stralman, Stamkos wired his 14th of the season through a perfect Ryan Callahan screen and past Darcy Kuemper. That knotted things up at one and gave the Lightning all the life they needed. The crowd at Amalie Arena was alive, and so were the Tampa skaters.
That energy manifested itself in the form of another Lightning goal with just less than two minutes left in the middle stanza. After Ryan Callahan settled things down in the offensive zone, Stralman fired a shot that deflected off Alex Killorn and into the net. Killorn’s sixth of the year and fourth in four games wasn’t beautiful, but it counted just the same. It gave the Bolts the 2-1 lead they needed, the lead they nursed home.
It was interesting to see two young, fast, offensively gifted teams battle to a 2-1 decision. Don’t let the scoreboard fool you; Saturday’s game was an exciting one. It’s a shame that the Wild and Lightning only meet twice each season. The entertainment value has the potential to be high each and every time they get together.
As always, thanks for reading.
Michael Stuart has been the Tampa Bay Lightning writer for HockeyBuzz since 2012. Visit his archive to read more or follow him on Twitter. 
Ottawa Senators Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»