The Tampa Bay Lightning weren’t perfect on Saturday night, but they managed to get the job done against the Arizona Coyotes. Dominant for certain long stretches and under siege for others, the Bolts played an up-and-down game. Even so, the result was a 4-2 Tampa victory and two more points added to their total in the standings.
Rested and playing against the lowly Coyotes, the Lightning had an opportunity to take advantage. They made it a lot harder than it probably had to be. Give the Coyotes credit for sticking around and giving Tampa everything they could handle for stretches of the contest, but the Bolts needed to play a 60-minute game. They’re just lucky it didn’t come back to bite them.
While they did eventually secure the victory, the Lightning fell behind relatively early on in the game. About 14 minutes into the first period, Michael Stone ripped his third of the season past Ben Bishop to give Arizona a 1-0 lead. The goal came as a result of a brutal turnover by Brett Connolly, who made the mistake of throwing the puck right into the slot. Connolly had an easy out up the boards, but he chose a different path. It hurt his team on the scoreboard.
Thankfully, after playing through an evenly played first period, the Bolts stepped on the gas in the second; as evidence, consider that the Coyotes only managed to fire three shots at Bishop during period two. The Lightning got on the board and tied the game at one at 6:45, courtesy of Ondrej Palat’s 13th of the season. The power play goal, assisted by Ryan Callahan and Anton Stralman, was Palat’s first of two on the night.
Only minutes later, the Lightning struck again. This time it was Ryan Callahan with his 18th of the 2014-15 campaign. Helped out by Mark Barberio and Stralman, Callahan was able to bank the puck past former Bolt Mike Smith from a wide angle.
That dominant second period, in which they outshot the Coyotes 10-3, gave the Lightning a 2-1 lead. The advantage was updated to 3-1 when Palat scored his second of the game at 3:27 of the final frame. It looked like the Bolts were poised to break the Coyotes, but instead the opposite happened.
A brutal Steven Stamkos play at the Lightning blue line gave the Coyotes life. He had the puck stripped from him by Mark Arcobello, who broke in alone on Ben Bishop and fired home his 11th of the season. Just like that, with more than eight minutes left on the clock, it was a one-goal game. And the Coyotes weren’t done pressing.
The Lightning, a team that fancies itself as a cup contender, were on their heels. On their heels against a team that isn’t contending for anything but Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel this season. Maybe that speaks to parity in the National Hockey League today, or maybe it speaks to the fact that the Lightning have had trouble playing a full 60-minutes over the last few weeks. This blogger can’t be sure.
For a long while, it looked like the Coyotes might cash in. Their hopes of completing the comeback were squashed late in the game, however, as Steven Stamkos scored an empty net goal, his 32nd, to make it 4-2 with only five seconds left in regulation. The Coyotes were done.
I’m not sure that Jon Cooper will like what he saw from his Lightning on this occasion. The reality, though, is that he doesn’t have to. His group manufactured points on the road in an out-of-conference game. That’s what matters. The Atlantic Division race is a close one, and these points count just the same.
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.