Well that was interesting. The Tampa Bay Lightning had every reason to curl up and roll over on Saturday afternoon against the Canadiens, but they battled hard and ended up walking out of the Bell Centre with a 2-1 overtime victory. Even with Valtteri Filppula out of the lineup and some uncertainty about goaltender Ben Bishop’s health status, Tampa did what good teams manage to do and manufactured a win. The ‘W’ moves the Lightning’s record to 32-18-5, which puts them five points up on the Canadiens.
If the second sentence in that opening paragraph confuses you, consider the twenty-four hour period that preceded Saturday’s puck drop. Anders Lindback was diagnosed with a long-term injury. Ben Bishop was listed as questionable to start against the Canadiens. And the team was forced to practice knowing that its top two centers, Steven Stamkos and Valtteri Filppula, were going to miss a pivotal divisional game. In a word – crazy.
The first piece of good news on the day was that Bishop was deemed healthy enough to start. After being run over by his own teammate, Nikita Kucherov, in the Lightning’s last game, there was some concern about a potential head injury. As the boxscore for Saturday’s game shows, however, the Vezina-contending goaltender didn’t look any worse for wear. In fact, he was a big impact player against the Canadiens in more than one way.
After skating through a scoreless first period, the Lightning opened the scoring in a most unusual way at 5:58 of the second period. With the Bolts shorthanded, Nate Thompson skated into the Montreal zone and fired a perfect pass into the slot to…. P.K. Subban? The Canadiens defender then tipped the puck right past Carey Price to give the Bolts a 1-0 lead. Victor Hedman and J.T. Brown were credited with assists on the game’s opening goal.
Before the second period’s buzzer rang, things took a turn for the unusual. During a commercial break, Montreal’s Brandon Prust got into a heated exchange with Ben Bishop. After jawing at Bishop for a good few seconds, Prust speared the Lightning keeper in…a sensitive area. That, in turn, spawned a fight and then a big skirmish between the two clubs. Don’t be surprised if Prust gets a call from Sheriff Shanahan; there’s no room in the game for that sort of thing.
Expecting a 1-0 lead to hold up in a National Hockey League game is like expecting the Starbucks barista to spell your name right on the cup. It’s not going to happen. The Canadiens knotted things up at one just past the seven minute mark of the third when Daniel Briere wired home his ninth of the year. Assisted by Brian Gionta, Briere waited patiently with the puck before beating Bishop cleanly with one of the better shots you’re ever going to see. Credit to the Canadiens forward for making the most of his limited minutes.
Unable to generate anything more on the scoreboard through the rest of regulation, the Lightning and Canadiens entered the overtime period. Tampa was forced to kill off about sixty seconds of 4-on-3 time, and did so masterfully. As much as it’s been an issue over the last few weeks, the penalty kill didn’t hurt the Lightning on Saturday. Ben Bishop was a big reason for that, as he stopped all five shots he faced in the extra frame.
The Lightning’s Nate Thompson (again) ended the game on his team’s first shot of overtime after being setup beautifully by Victor Hedman and Alex Killorn. Perched in the slot, Killorn took a smart Hedman feed and just beat Price with a very quick shot. It’s not often that Thompson is the catalyst for a Lightning victory, but he certainly was on Saturday afternoon. That sort of depth scoring will prove to be so important if the Bolts want to compete down the stretch. His two goals powered the team to a 2-1 overtime victory and two very crucial points in the standings.
One final note I’ll make before signing off is that it was an absolute treat to watch both P.K. Subban and Victor Hedman dance around for sixty-plus minutes. While he was held off the scoreboard, Subban gave the Lightning defenders fits all night long. He’s such a dominant player. Not wanting to be outshone, Hedman tallied two assists and continued to make Team Sweden look utterly foolish for leaving him off their Sochi roster.
The Bolts are now off until Tuesday, when they’ll take on the Minnesota Wild.
As always, thanks for reading.