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Lightning refuse to say die in legendary matinee win.
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Florida Leads the Series 2-1
Andrei Vasilevskiy allowed one goal on 34 shots for the victory. He looked like the best goaltender in the world today in a game where the club absolutely needed it.
First Period
2:43 FLA Tkachuk (3), (Bennett, Rodrigues)
17:15 TB Point (2), (Guentzel, Kucherov)
Second Period
13:17 TB Paul (1), (Goncalves, McDonagh)
Third Period
0:21 TB Guentzel (2), (Kucherov, McDonagh)
14:19 TB Glendening (1), (Gourde, Goncalves)
15:00 TB Cirelli (1), (Guentzel, Kucherov)(EN)
Vasilevsky, Jake Guentzel, and Brayden Point were the game’s three stars. Nikita Kucherov thank the Sunrise media for their hatred for not giving him a star despite a three point night and will surely try to pay it forward in Game Four.
I was very critical of the team’s Game One performance because I felt they played naive hockey and didn’t rise to the occasion. I was frankly ashamed of the way the team played in Game One. Today, however, was one of the grittiest and savviest performances I’ve seen from the Lightning, and I am as proud of today’s performance in Game Three as just about any win in the team’s history. The NHL, in one of the most bizarre overreaches I’ve ever seen (more on this later) suspended Brandon Hagel for his hit on Barkov in Game Two, all but zipping up the body bag on the Lightning’s season because the team is already missing Bjorkstrand and Gourde seems to me to be playing at less than 100%. Between that and Aaron Ekblad’s return from a PED suspension, lots of people were picking up shovels and starting to move dirt over to the pile it on the team’s grave. But Tampa Bay just refused to die today, even after falling behind 1-0 early as Sunrise got some puck luck on kind of a broken play goal.
The First Period of this game was not the Lightning’s finest moment, and in fact I’d have to say that without Vasilevskiy the team probably would’ve dug a much deeper early hole than they did. The buzzards were circling. Epitaphs were being written. And then, late in the period and against the run of play, Nikita Kucherov made a world class move to split two defenders and dish the puck to Jake Guentzel who also made a slick move to toe drag another defender and fire a shot off Brayden Point’s shin pad and through Bobrovsky to tie the game. 1-1. And, like a basketball shooter who is cold but finally sees the ball go through the hoop one time, Kucherov and Guentzel were off to the races. The Lightning survived the Panthers’ best punch and pulled into First Intermission all even.
From there on out, the Lightning improved their puck management and started to put together some zone time, rushes, and chances, eventually inducing a neutral zone turnover that created a 2-on-1 where Nick Paul took a shot off the rush that got deflected and enjoyed some puck luck to go through Bobrovsky and give the Lightning their first lead of the series. Vasilevskiy made a spate of timely saves shortly after the lead goal and the Lightning got into the Second Intermission up 2-1. Then Kucherov did it again on the first shift of the Third Period with a spinning saucer pass from behind the net that found Guentzel’s stick to go top shelf and make it 3-1. And from that moment on, the arena in Sunrise sounded as dead as everybody thought the Lightning were going to be going into today’s game. What a time to be alive. The team added a 2-on-1 goal to make it 4-1 and an empty netter to make it 5-1, and now it feels like a very different series.
I said after Game Two it felt like if the Lightning got Game Three the momentum felt like it could shift really quickly. Even a reverse sweep might be in play. The reason I said that was because in Game Two the Lightning had the best of nearly all the matchups at 5v5. Sunrise, after two previous deep playoff runs, doesn’t seem to have quite the zip they did a year ago. Lightning fans know what they’re looking at because we experienced something similar just a few years ago in the run to the Final against Colorado. The longer this series goes and the harder the Lightning lean on the Panthers, the more fatigue may come into play and Sunrise may very well regret missing their opportunity to drive a stake in Tampa Bay’s heart today. Game Four will be another extremely difficult lift no doubt, but the Lightning can take some more confidence from the fact they’re getting Brandon Hagel back and that should allow them to put even more sustained pressure on the Panthers. If the Lightning do parlay today’s win into something bigger, do not forget the performances Vasilevskiy, Guentzel, and Kucherov had today. Remember, Guentzel even had to pick up extra penalty kill minutes today with Hagel unavailable. It was worthy of a few pages of legend.
Now we’ll get to Matt Tkachuk’s cheap shot on Jake Guentzel before the sealing empty net goal. I don’t want to labor on this because it detracts from the massive accomplishment the team pulled off in the 55 minutes prior to that immature display of sour grapes. For those who missed it, Guentzel took a pass from Kucherov in the neutral zone and laid a pass to Cirelli to spring him for a breakaway empty net goal. A considerable time after he released the pass Matt Tkachuk, with intent, charged in from the blind side and laid out Guentzel, drawing a major for intereference (sound familiar?). So we have a late hit from the blind side, shoulder-to-chest, on a star player. Differences in Sunrise’s favor: Guentzel was the last player to release the pass whereas Barkov didn’t make contact with the puck and Hagel hit him anticipating he would. Differences not in Sunrise’s favor: it’s inarguable to me that Matt Tkachuk had more intent than Hagel and Tkachuk has been suspended four times in his history, so he has a rap sheet. Differences that shouldn’t make a difference but probably will: unlike Barkov, Guentzel didn’t lay on the ice like he was concussed (Barkov, as it turns out, was well enough to play 18:52 in Game Three, qu’elle surprise!). By the standard the league set with Hagel’s suspension Tkachuk should be suspended for Game Four. Will he be? I doubt it. The league’s marketed Tkachuk’s roguish semi-dirty play as a virtue. I’m a total cynic where the NHL is concerned in cases like this, although you’ll rarely see two cases this unbelievably similar a game apart where the standard has so clearly been set.
In closing, I just want to say thank you to some of Sunrise’s fans, because although the Lightning’s grit and determination obviously deserves the lion’s share of the credit today I absolutely do believe in a thing called karma. And, karma says you all deserved to have your team lose today. Panthers fans online made physical threats to a Lightning reporter who dared to disagree with them about whether or not Brandon Hagel’s hit merited a major penalty and also keyboard tough-guyed their way to the message boards to demand the addresses of Brandon Hagel and his family’s homes and to research Hagel family tragedies they could exploit as fodder for heckling. Honest question: what the hell is wrong with you people? I was at the first Lightning/Panthers game at Thunderdome decades ago. Nobody’s lived in this rivalry longer than me and trust me, nobody has more contempt for your franchise and your fan base than I do. It is impossible for anyone to have less respect for Sunrise and its fans than I do. But, I’ve never tried to look up the home address of Peter Worrell, nor have I ever desired to be read into the intricacies of Tkachuk family tragedies for my tee hees. So, again, thank you. Thank you for your contribution to the Lightning’s good karma and thank you for proving everything I’ve ever said about you to be true. It’s truly appreciated.
Box score and extended statistics from NHL.com.
