6
0
Lightning hang on for another critical win.
NYI-3
TB-5
Jonas Johansson allowed three goals on 38 shots for the victory. Played really well the first 40 minutes before allowing the Islanders to pull as close as the false hope goal. But, to his credit, he made a couple of big stops at the end to keep the W.
First Period
2:02 TB Kucherov (33), (Hedman, Guentzel)
7:31 TB Perbix (5), (unassisted)
17:57 TB Point (37), (McDonagh, Kucherov)
Second Period
19:43 TB Point (38), (Kucherov, Hagel)
Third Period
5:58 NYI Pulock (5), (Lee, Boqvist)(PP)
7:47 NTI Gatcomb (6), (unassisted)
8:47 NYI DeAngelo (4), (Tsyplakov, Pelech)
19:46 TB Guentzel (37), (Kucherov, Hedman)(EN)
Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point, Jake Guentzel.
The Islanders probably deserved better than to be down 4-0 after 40 minutes the way they played in this game, and when the Lightning let their focus flag early in the Third Period they got a very rude awakening. Thankfully it’s a lesson that didn’t require dropping points to, hopefully, be learned. But that was not a good performance by the Lightning to close this homestand, getting outshot 38-24.
Despite multiple cases of acute boneheadedness at the conclusion of the game, Nikita Kucherov did cap a four point day and temporarily moved into the league lead in points. It probably doesn’t matter in the MVP race because the media is so far up Nathan MacKinnon’s backside they’ve just about earned honorary proctology degrees, but back-to-back scoring titles would be a huge historical footnote for Kucherov’s career nonetheless.
More importantly, the Lightning also headed into the evening having jumped Toronto in a tie atop the Atlantic Division with Sunrise at 91 points, although both those teams hold a game in hand. It’s also important to note the Lightning right now have a two game advantage in regulation wins where tiebreaks may come into play.
Box score and extended statistics from NHL.com.
