It wasn’t a perfect performance, but the Tampa Bay Lightning did manage to secure their first road win of the season with a 4-2 victory over the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena last night. Boosted by a three-point night from captain Steven Stamkos and a stellar outing from goaltender Ben Bishop, the Bolts were able send the Canucks home with a loss for the first time in 2014-15.
Getting off to a good start on the road is always important; Tampa couldn’t have asked for a better start on Saturday night. Only 53 seconds into the contest, and on his team’s first shot of the evening, Stamkos potted his fourth tally of the season. Assisted by Ondrej Palat, he broke in alone on Eddie Lack and backhanded the puck into the cage.
Vancouver answered back less than seven minutes later when Chris Higgins beat Bishop for his first of the year, assisted by newcomer Nick Bonino and Alex Edler. The Canucks’s transition game, something that was virtually non-existent under John Tortorella, was on full display when Higgins scored. Edler and Bonino both made smart plays to get the puck to Higgins, who broke in with speed and knocked home his own rebound. Vancouver created something out of nothing. You couldn’t say that on many occasions last year.
Not wanting to see his Bolts head into the first intermission tied at one, Stamkos notched his second goal of the game at the 8:26 mark to give Tampa a 2-1 lead. Helped out beautifully by Ryan Callahan, Stamkos again backhanded the puck past Lack for the score. His second goal wasn’t highlight reel quality like the first, but it counted just the same.
The back-and-forth continued into the second period, as Vancouver knotted things up at two only 2:42 into the middle stanza when Edler scored his first of the year. Fed by Daniel Sedin on the power play, Edler walked in and wired a wrist shot past Bishop. Despite only scoring with it once, Vancouver’s power play unit got plenty of practice time on Saturday seeing as the Bolts took a whopping eight (!) minor penalties.
Like Vancouver’s, the Lightning’s power play was also hot heading into the contest. It converted towards the end of the second period to give the Bolts a 3-2 lead. Callahan scored his third goal of the season by sending the puck past Lack from Stamkos’s circle. The primary assist on the goal, naturally, was credited to Stamkos.
The Callahan goal would ultimately stand up as the game winner, but Alex Killorn added an insurance marker in the third period to squash any hope for a Vancouver comeback. While they pushed and pushed, the Canucks were unable to beat Ben Bishop. The final buzzer sounded, and the Lightning walked off the ice with their third victory of this young season.
As nice as it was for the Lightning to grab two points on Saturday, the win did come with a cost. Victor Hedman left the game with an upper body injury midway through the second period and did not return. He is done with the road trip and will be heading back to Tampa to be reevaluated. Some are speculating that he is dealing with a broken bone in his hand, though the team obviously hasn’t confirmed that. Given that he’s such a key cog for the Bolts, any amount of time without Hedman will be a struggle.
With the victory, the Lightning’s record moves to 3-1-1. Getting the ‘W’ tonight was especially important because both the Montreal Canadiens and Boston Bruins were victorious as well. Keeping pace in the Atlantic Division race is imperative, even this early in the season. The team, minus Victor Hedman, will now travel to Edmonton where they’ll take on the Oilers on Monday night.
One final note: Have you ever seen a team struggle to score an empty net goal quite like that?
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.