7
0
New look Lightning with an old school win.
TB-4
CAR-1
Andrei Vasilevskiy was masterful stopping 20 of 21 shots for the victory. The old formula of holding the game close until the team had time to pull away was back in force.
First Period
14:32 CAR Staal (1), (Carrier)
Second Period
2:22 TB Point (1), (Kucherov, Hedman)(PP)
Third Period
11:06 TB Kucherov (1), (Hedman, Paul)(PP)
17:53 TB Kucherov (2), (Guentzel, Cernak)(EN)
19:44 TB Kucherov (3), (Guentzel, Hedman)(EN)
Kucherov and Victor Hedman were the game’s first and second stars.
The new look Lightning were much more competitive at evens than last year, but still relied on Nikita Kucherov and their PP to secure the win. And then Nikita Kucherov blew a kiss to his critics with two EN goals, to boot.
Conor Geekie had 1 hit and was 25% on 8 draws in 10:07. He had a good shift early in the game and a decent flash on a rush later on, but there were a few wayward moments too. Nothing awful, but I get the sense to stick his margin of error is thin with Eyssimont close to coming off IR.
Mitchell Chaffee had 2 penalty minutes, 1 shot, 3 hits, and 1 blocked shot in 12:13.
Emil Lilleberg was -1 with 2 penalty minutes and 1 blocked shot in 10:48. His minus was off a bad turnover by Hagel and his penalty was off of a matador impersonation by Perbix, so I won’t judge him too harshly but he didn’t exude competence tonight. That said, the Lightning’s right side D sails with all the collective speed and beauty of a garbage scow.
Box score and extended statistics from NHL.com.
