The Tampa Bay Lightning began their six-game road trip exactly the way they wanted to, defeating the Los Angeles Kings 2-1 on Monday afternoon.
First Period
The game started off quite well for the Tampa Bay Lightning. They applied a great deal of pressure early and appeared to have all the energy and momentum on their side. However, all it took was one mistake for that to change as Kyle Clifford stole the puck behind the Lightning net and scored his third goal of the season to give the Kings a 1-0 lead.
This has turned into too common of an occurrence for the Lightning this season. Every time it appears things are going the Bolts' way, it all disappears with one error or misplay.
Tampa Bay has now given up the first goal in 28 of their 45 games. That is just too many times they have been forced to play from behind from the get-go. The team's struggles this season prove it is hard to win like that.
Luckily, the Lightning would get that goal back later on in the first period. Jonathan Drouin kept play alive and eventually found Tyler Johnson with a nice pass and Johnson sealed the deal with his 13th goal of the season.
The Lightning and Kings would be all tied up at one when the final horn of the first period sounded. Although Tampa surrendered a bad goal, they were able to power through and still managed to be the better team through the first 20 minutes.
Second Period
As was the case for most of period one, the Lightning did a nice job controlling the pace of the game for most of the second period. Although the Kings were the much bigger team, the Bolts did a nice job matching their physicality while still using their own strength, speed, to create opportunities.
The Lightning finally took the lead 18:47 into the period when Brian Boyle connected on a rebound for his 11th goal of the year. Tampa Bay not only went into the locker room with the lead, they went in with all the momentum and control of the game.
Through two periods of play, the numbers showed a pretty even matched contest. However, it was clear that the Lightning had been the better team through the first 40 minutes.
Third Period
The Los Angeles Kings came out in the third period with more fire in their bellies than they had the rest of the game. They spent most of period three with the momentum in their corner and were given some great opportunities to tie the game.
Luckily, the Lightning did just enough to hold off the Kings. They held strong in their own zone while continuing to apply enough pressure offensively to keep Los Angeles on their toes. When it was all said and done, the Bolts secured a much-needed victory and now head to Anaheim to take on the Ducks tomorrow night.
Final Thoughts
This was exactly the kind of game the Lightning needed. Every single thing for this team had not been going their way recently and a loss today would have just made the hole harder to get out of.
Now this win is only one and the Lightning are going to need a lot more points on this road trip if they want to crawl back into the playoff race. Still, today's victory against the Kings at least moves the team in the right direction.