Only hours after announcing that rookie forward Jonathan Drouin won’t be loaned to Team Canada for the upcoming World Junior Hockey Championship, the Tampa Bay Lightning capped off a unique 2-1 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes. Strong play from Evgeni Nabokov and a couple weird goals propelled the Bolts to their 19th win of the season, which moves them back into first place in the Atlantic Division.
A quick glance at the shot clock probably leads you to believe that Thursday’s contest was an even match. The trouble with that sort of analysis, however, is that it discounts the difference in power play time between the two clubs. The Hurricanes spent a full eight minutes with the man-advantage, while the Bolts only spent 3:18.
Moreover, if we take a look at the even-strength possession chart from the contest, it becomes quite clear that this was Tampa’s game to lose.
On the whole, the Lightning were the better team.
But, as this blogger has noted time and time again, the underlying numbers don’t mean much if you don’t score goals. The Bolts struggled to pot the biscuit for much of the evening, despite the fact that they were able to generate numerous great opportunities. Lightning captain Steven Stamkos, for his part, rang the puck off the goal post on more than one occasion.
What kept the team in the game while the skaters were struggling to get anything by Cam Ward was the strong play of Evgeni Nabokov. He stopped all 10 shots he faced in the first period and all 11 he faced in the second period. After struggling through late October and early November, Nabokov has bounced back with two very solid performances to start this month. He held his teammates in the game when they needed him, and they rewarded him for it.
Following two scoreless periods, Tampa finally broke through Ward’s force field at the 6:35 mark of the third period. And it took a weird bounce to do it.
An Anton Stralman dump-in ricocheted off the boards and straight out front to Nikita Kucherov, who had a gaping cage staring him straight in the face. Ward, like most goalies would, was skating behind his net anticipating the puck’s arrival. It never came. Kucherov wasted little time and deposited the puck for his 10th goal of the year.
Sitting up one, the Bolts probably expected that Carolina would mount a big push and open things up a little bit. That didn’t really happen. What viewers and those in attendance at Amalie Arena got was more of the same. It eventually paid off for the Hurricanes with about eight minutes left on the clock, as Justin Faulk scored his fifth of the campaign. His point shot deflected off Victor Hedman and past Nabokov to knot things at one.
With that goal, the chess match continued. For a long while it looked as though both teams were simply playing to get to overtime and secure the single point. However, Carolina’s hopes for riches (read: a point in the standings) were dashed when Kucherov scored his second of the game and 11th of the season with only 31 seconds left in regulation. It took yet another bizarre bounce to beat Ward.
Looking to feed a teammate, Kucherov had his pass deflect off Ron Hainsey’s skate and into the Carolina goal. The angle was perfect. Even without trying to score, Kucherov made it work. You have to be lucky to be good. It wasn’t the prettiest goal, but it counted just the same. It was a dagger for the Hurricanes.
When Kucherov tells his grandchildren about the two-goal game he had on December 11, 2014, he’ll likely talk about two highlight reel goals. He’ll talk about picking his spot against a world-class goaltender. He’ll talk about firing the puck with pinpoint precision. He’ll talk about the incredible velocity with which the puck made its way into the net. None of that will be true, of course, but it doesn’t really matter. Kucherov did what he had to do, beat Ward for two goals, and helped lead his team to the finish line.
The final buzzer rang and the Bolts skated off the Amalie ice with a 2-1 victory and two more points in the standings. Credit Evgeni Nabokov for standing strong all night long and doing everything a backup goaltender is supposed to do. Credit the skaters for somehow finding a way, even if it wasn’t particularly pretty. This win snaps the team’s two-game losing streak on home ice, and will hopefully serve as a boost as they get set to head out on the road for five in a row.
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. 
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