The Tampa Bay Lightning went into Rogers Arena in Vancouver last night, and walked out with an impressive 4-2 victory after 60 minutes of action. Tampa was able to use its speed and quick transition game to suffocate the Canucks, arguably the hottest team in the league heading into the contest, on its way to the win. Thanks to what was their fourth straight road ‘W’, the Bolts are now 24-12-4 on the year. According to Sports Club Stats, that gives them a 99.6% chance at making the playoffs this season.
In my pre-game blog, I mentioned that speed could likely be the Lightning’s key to victory on Wednesday against the Canucks. That proved to be more than accurate. The Lightning were able to out-skate the Canucks at every turn, avoid Vancouver’s usually good forecheck, and move the puck up ice quickly. The line of Marty St. Louis, Ondrej Palat, and Tyler Johnson, in particular, had a fantastic night. At 5-on-5 ‘Close’, Marty held a 75.0% Corsi-for rating, while Palat wasn’t far behind with 73.7%. When the game was on the line, the Lightning’s key guys stepped up in a big way. The same can’t be said for Vancouver.
After a scoreless first period, Brad Richardson opened the scoring for Vancouver at the 11:25 mark of the second period. His break followed a downright horrendous play from Mark Barberio, who got caught up ice while Richardson skated in on Ben Bishop and fired the puck home. That 1-0 Vancouver lead turned into a 2-2 deadlock in short order, as Valtteri Filppula, Tyler Johnson, and Zac Dalpe all scored within 34 seconds of each other only minutes later.
Just as it looked like the teams were going to head into the second intermission tied at two, Nikita Kucherov broke the game open with only three seconds remaining in the frame. On the power-play, Radko Gudas made a good pass to Kucherov who proceeded to absolutely rip the puck past Eddie Lack for the one goal Lightning lead. It was, to state it simply, a goal scorer’s goal. Kucherov’s fourth, which turned out to be the game winner, was huge.
What transpired in the third period was truly beautiful for Tampa. The Lightning didn’t give the Canucks an inch of time or space. Once again, they were able to use their speed to their advantage and win puck battles at nearly every turn. The Canucks, and especially the Sedin twins, couldn’t get anything going. Alex Killorn tipped home an insurance marker for the Bolts at the 7:28 mark of the third, and that was all she wrote. His 10th of the year, assisted by Victor Hedman and Valtteri Filppula, sealed the deal on the 4-2 victory.
For a team like the Lightning, which has struggled on the road at times this season, Wednesday’s victory against a Canucks team that went 10-1-2 in December was impressive. Now only two points out of the Atlantic Division lead, the Bolts have a few very winnable games coming up to close out the week. If they play like they did in Vancouver, it’s hard not to like their chances.
As always, thanks for reading.