Sometimes when I write, I wish it was possible to add theme music for the reader to enjoy while he or she viewed my material.
For this post, Limp Bizkit's tune "Rollin" would be the most appropriate. Something about Fred Durst going "keep rolling, rolling, rolling" would really bring the piece home.
Keeping the hot streak rolling is exactly what the Tampa Bay Lightning were able to do last night at the PNC Arena, defeating the Carolina Hurricanes 5-1. The Bolts are now on a three-game winning streak and an eight-game point streak, keeping them at the top of the National Hockey League standings.
Tampa Bay got things rolling in the scoring department with less than a minute to go in the first period. Tyler Johnson put the Bolts on top before the first intermission with his fourth goal of the season. Both Ondrej Palat and Brayden Point contributed to the goal with assists.
The Lightning then increased their lead to two goals midway through the second period with Mikhail Sergachev's fourth goal of the season. His goal came less than 24 hours after hearing the news that he would be sticking with Tampa Bay. Steven Stamkos provided the primary assist for his 16th of the year, extending his point streak to ten games.
Carolina made things a little interesting in the beginning of the third period with a goal from Jaccob Slavin to cut the lead in half. Unfortunately for the Hurricanes, that was all she wrote in the goal department.
Tampa Bay then tallied two empty-netters late in the game, one from Vladislav Namestnikov and one from Ryan Callahan. The Bolts then threw a little more salt on the wound with four seconds remaining when Nikita Kucherov scored his 11th goal of the season, also extending his point streak to ten games. Stamkos recorded his second assist of the game, bringing his total to 17.
Andrei Vasilevskiy had himself another wonderful outing stopping 31 of 32 shots. The Bolts' netminder now has seven straight victories.
The Tampa Bay Lightning will look to keep their fantastic start to the 2017-18 season going when they take on the Detroit Red Wings at AMALIE Arena.