4
0
Tampa Bay clubs Sunrise split squad team.
FLA-1
TB-5
Andrei Vasilevskiy allowed one goal on 24 shots for the victory.
First Period
1:32 TB Point (42), (Gourde, Moser)
15:25 TB Geekie (8), (Point, Hedman)
18:09 TB Guentzel (41), (Cirelli)(SH)
Second Period
4:42 TB Kucherov (37), (Gourde, Point)
5:36 FLA Marchand (23), (Verhaeghe, Kiersted)
Third Period
11:22 TB Raddysh (6), (Kucherov, Hedman)(PP)
Brayden Point, Yanni Gourde, and Nikita Kucherov were the game’s three stars.
With their playoff seeding locked in, Sunrise held out some of their key pieces against a Lightning squad still holding slim hopes of Toronto choking away the Atlantic Division crown. So, the Lightning played their first choice lineup and the best I can say is that, for psychology’s sake, their top choice lineup did to Sunrise’s second choice lineup what they were expected to do. Unfortunately, Toronto did lock up the Atlantic Division crown tonight so the Lightning will host Game One against Sunrise this weekend. Glass half empty: Oliver Bjorkstrand won’t be available. Glass half full: the net is looking as big as a tractor trailer to Conor Geekie right now, so maybe the Lightning will have a proper third line chipping in after all.
I expect a significantly slimmed down Lightning roster to make the trip to MSG Thursday for the regular season finale with nothing… even individual statistical prizes… seemingly left to be decided.
Box score and extended statistics from NHL.com.
