Ben Bishop secured the Tampa Bay Lightning franchise record for wins in a single season by a goaltender in style on Saturday night, as he shut out the New Jersey Devils by a score of 3-0. Coupled with the goaltender’s solid outing was an offensive outburst from some unlikely sources. All in all, it added up to a second straight win for the Bolts and two very important points in the standings.
The Devils were at an immediate disadvantage heading into the contest, as they had played and lost in Florida the previous evening. The Lightning, on the other hand, were well rested after beating those same Panthers on Thursday night. Adding to New Jersey’s problems was the fact that Martin Brodeur got the start in net versus Tampa. As unbelievably good as the soon-to-be-hall-of-famer has been over the years, the reality is that Brodeur’s best days are behind him. Forgive me for saying this, but he just hasn’t been very good this season. I think it would be foolish to suggest that the Devils' skaters don't believe (read: know) that Cory Schneider gives them a much better chance to win.
It took the Bolts a little while to break through Brodeur and the Devils’ defense, but once they did they never let up. B.J. Crombeen got Tampa on the scoreboard at the 12:26 mark of the second period with his third goal of the season, a tip-in off a Mike Kostka point shot. Crombeen, who had been a healthy scratch in the team’s last handful of games, was decent in limited minutes. The fact that he was able to score the game’s opening goal, which obviously turned out to be the game-winner, was just icing on the cake.
Kostka doubled the Lightning lead just over four minutes later with a goal that was assisted beautifully by Ondrej Palat and Valtteri Filppula. Kostka took a great Palat feed right to the front of the net and tucked the puck past Brodeur for his fourth of the year. I’ve been incredibly critical of Kostka since he joined the Lightning, but I have to give him credit for his performances in the last couple games. He’s looked every bit like a very solid depth defender.
Given the fact that the Lightning have made a habit of coughing up two goal leads in the last few weeks, there was a palpable nervousness in the air as Tampa moved into the final frame with their 2-0 advantage. To their credit, the guys put those fears to rest quickly as they managed to play a very clean game with the lead as the clock wound down. That, for me, was the biggest takeaway from Saturday’s performance. The nerves weren’t there. They were replaced by a noticeable confidence.
That confidence generated a third goal. Nate Thompson sealed the deal on the Lightning victory at the 16:41 mark of the third when he tipped home a brilliant feed from J.T. Brown. Brown wasn’t able to convert on a penalty shot earlier in the contest, but he made up for that miss with the assist on Thompson’s ninth goal of the year.
The last point I’ll make is that, while good, the Lightning’s play on Saturday wasn't perfect. It was close, though. There were miscues here and there, but they didn’t come back to hurt the team on the scoreboard. It’s hard to complain about a 3-0 victory. This was a solid team win.
Of course, the game could very well have gone in a different direction had the Devils not been “Tim Peeled… early on. New Jersey had what should have been a good-goal disallowed on a bogus goaltender interference call. You won’t see me complaining about the result of last night’s game, but that’s a call that needs to be made right. These things tend to even out, so maybe that's what the Hockey Gods were going for when Ryan Callahan hit the post twice late in the game.
The Lightning will take to the ice next on Monday when John Tortorella and the Vancouver Canucks come to town.
As always, thanks for reading.