7
0
And to all a good night… except for Sunrise fans. Hope you all drive off the side of a tall bridge.
TB-4
FLA-0
Jonas Johansson(!) stopped all 36 shots he faced for the SO victory. After seemingly facing some serious jeopardy of losing the backup job earlier in the year, he’s now had three really high quality starts in a row.
First Period
6:56 TB Kucherov (15), (Hedman, Cirelli)
9:20 TB Guentzel (19), (Hagel, Hedman)
16:24 TB Chaffee (7), (Cirelli, Paul)(PP)
Second Period
NO SCORING
Third Period
14:18 TB Hagel (16), (Cernak)(SH)(EN)
Johansson, Victor Hedman, and Anthony Cirelli were the game’s three stars.
The Lightning rebounded from their self-inflicted loss last night by going into Sunrise and beating the brakes off their rivals with Jonas Johansson in net. This two game set has given me full faith and credit that JBB and Cooper have this thing on the verge of being a legit Cup contender. They were the better team at 5’s in both contests.
To address the topic du jour, do I think Nikita Kucherov’s kneeing major on Tkachuk was deliberate. Let me put it this way. Matthew Tkachuk spent the closing minutes of last night’s game leaning over the bench yelling at Kucherov and Jake Guentzel about how, “You’ll be sorry,” to come to Sunrise on the back-to-back, and I don’t think anything Nikita Kucherov does on a hockey rink is an accident. The adage, “Talk sh_t, get bit,” applies. The outrage and cries of “dirty team” and “dirty player” from a franchise and “fan base” (used loosely) that employs Tkachuk and Sam Bennett and used to lionize Ryan Lomberg. Hell, I can go back to clowns like Peter Worrell. Give me a break Sunrise. You got a dose of your own medicine and you deserved it.
Mitchell Chaffee had a goal, 2 penalty minutes, 3 shots, 1 hit, and 1 blocked shot in 13:57.
Emil Lilleberg was +1 with 4 penalty minutes and 1 blocked shot in 16:15.
Gage Goncalves played 11:19.
Box score and extended statistics from NHL.com.
