7
0
Lightning offense comes alive with help from sloppy Blue Jackets.
TB-6
CBJ-4
Andrei Vasilevskiy allowed four goals on 36 shots for the win.
First Period
0:58 TB Coleman (8), (Gourde, Goodrow)
4:41 TB Stamkos (17), (Hedman, Palat)(PP)
5:41 TB Goodrow (6), (Gourde, Coleman)
17:21 CBJ Del Zotto (3), (Roslovic, Merzlikins)
19:59 TB McDonagh (3), (Gourde, Coleman)
Second Period
4:54 TB Colton (6), (Johnson, Maroon)
17:08 CBJ Roslovic (8), (Grigorenko, Atkinson)
18:56 TB McDonagh (4), (Gourde, Goodrow)
Third Period
10:41 CBJ Werenski (7), (Texier, Roslovic)
19:14 CBJ Domi (7), (Bjorkstrand, Kukan)
Yanni Gourde and Blake Coleman were the game’s first and second stars.
On the one hand, it was good to see the Lightning offense come alive with six goals. On the other, a couple of those goals were pretty soft gifts from Columbus goaltenders and a few others came off of some horrendous turnovers by the Blue Jackets. So, I take the six goals with a little bit of a grain of salt and I really wasn’t in love with how the team closed out the game allowing a couple of goals in the final ten minutes after talking so much about trying to clamp down defensively. Not quite ready to declare everything is golden, especially with Stamkos getting nicked up late in the game. More evidence needs to be shown, although getting Cernak back is a very helpful sign.
Cal Foote was +1 with 17 PIMs, 2 shots, and 1 hit in 7:48. He answered the bell fighting in defense of his pairing partner Mikhail Sergachev who took a pretty tough blind side hit.
Ben Thomas was +1 with 2 hits in 18:28. He got more time in the Third Period with Foote going off with his fight. When he gets caught or has to do something in close quarters physically, I’m not sure he’s going to win his share of those 50/50 battles. But, thus far, he just rarely gets caught. He’s first to pucks and pretty efficient and quick when he is.
Ross Colton had another goal and 3 shots in 11:41. He was also 25% on 8 draws. Getting to be old hat.
Box score and extended statistics from NHL.com.
