The Tampa Bay Lightning capped off the night of their 2004 Stanley Cup Champion celebration with a shootout victory over the visiting Columbus Blue Jackets.
The win was Tampa Bay's 11th of the year and the team has recorded 24 points in their first 15 games of the 2017-18 season. The Lightning not only owns the Atlantic Division with seven points separating them from the second place Ottawa Senators, they also sit atop the standings of the entire National Hockey League.
Last night's game started off with a bang as the offense came quick. The Blue Jackets struck first only 2:30 into the game with a bizarre tally from Seth Jones. That goal set off a wild minute of play as it was the first of three goals scored within that time span.
Luckily for the Bolts, the other two goals were in their favor. First, Brayden Point scored his seventh of the season to tie up the game and remove any early momentum Columbus may have gained. Then, Nikita Kucherov game the Lightning their first lead of the game with his league-leading 14th goal of the season.
Unfortunately, Tampa could not maintain the lead for the entirety of the opening period. Columbus's other stud defenseman, Zach Werenski, recorded his fourth goal of the year to tie things back up midway through the period. The Bolts inability to hold onto the lead in the first would unknowingly foreshadow how the rest of regulation would unfold.
The Lightning were able to create some separation in the second period with goals from both Steven Stamkos and Yanni Gourde giving the team a 4-2 lead heading into the final period of play. Unfortunately, that would not be enough to put the Blue Jackets to bed for the night. They responded with two unanswered goals of their own to knot things up and bring the game into overtime.
Tampa Bay would eventually walk away victorious in the shootout with Stamkos scoring the lone goal. Something could be said about the Bolts inability to finish the job in regulation but when it all comes down to it, they still left AMALIE Arena with a win.
The Lightning will now get a few days away from game action. They will go back to work on Wednesday night in San Jose for the first of three games on the road in the fine state of California.