Lightning Give Heart, Get Two Points

By on February 4, 2017

 

Tampa, Fla. — On Florida Hospital’s Heart Health Awareness Night the Tampa Bay Lightning is going to have a lot of heart not only tonight but over the next eight games till the trade deadline, to salvage a playoff chance. By the end of this month we should know if they are still alive for a playoff berth.

 The Lightning entered tonight’s game at the bottom of the Eastern Conference tied with Buffalo at 50 points although the Sabres do have two games in hand.  The fact that the Lightning trail Philadelphia by 9 points for the second wild card spot is not the bad news, it’s that there is seven teams in front of the Lightning before Philadelphia.

It took all the heart with a five minute overtime and a four round shootout to finally notch two points at home in a while.  The last time the Lightning won at home was all the back on January 12th vs. Buffalo.

It feels like we’ve seen this story so many times this year, the opponent scores first.  Just a little over eight minutes in Brandon Montour scores for the Ducks.

With forty game penalties minutes, it was a more than usual physical game tonight and the Lightning were up to task.  “I think J.T. Brown set the tone tonight, he got in that fight,” said Lightning head coach Jon Cooper.

A Nikita Kucherov forecheck lead to the Lightning’s first goal when the puck careened off his skate into the offensive zone.  Kucherov chased it down and gave a nifty pass to Jonathan Drouin,  who made a fluid figure skate like move towards the center slot and ripped past Jonathan Bernier.

The Lightning were 1 for 7 on the power play, but a power play goal from Alex Killorn, a one timer rocket top shelf goes ding, post and in.  Nikita Kucherov with a perfect pass to the wheelhouse of Killorn for the lone assist, Kucherov’s second of the night.  Two unanswered goals for the Bolts and one goal lead which they carried into the third stanza.

The Lightning’s best chance to tie in regulation came on a power play chance at 10:19 when former Lightning Nate Thompson went off for elbowing.  The man advantage was short lived although the Lightning had good zone movement on the puck, a Victor Hedman slapshot turned into an Anaheim block and a 2 on 1.  Hedman picked up a hooking call chasing down the play.  The penalties harmlessly expired and it was back to 5 on 5 hockey.

 In the overtime period the Lightning outshot the Ducks 5-0, and pounded out 37 for the game to Anaheim’s 16.  Jon Cooper said he believes the Lightning had 80 shot attempts tonight.

The Lightning wrap up the home-stand Tuesday February 7th vs the other So. Cal team the Kings.  Off on the road for two games at Minnesota and at Winnipeg for a weekend back to back then the 5 day winter break… don’t ask… I’ll elaborate on the show.

Rick Sassone Twitter: @RocketSportsEnt

Player Summary

Anaheim Ducks

Time On Ice Faceoffs
Player G A +/- SOG MS BS PN PIM HT TK GV SHF TOT PP SH EV FW FL %
K. Bieksa D 0 1 1 0 2 2 0 0 1 1 0 22 20:19 0:00 3:29 16:50 0 0 00.0
A. Cogliano C 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 17 11:45 0:00 2:00 9:45 0 0 00.0
J. Cramarossa C 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 5 0 0 0 10 6:31 0:00 0:00 6:31 0 0 00.0
C. Fowler D 0 0 2 1 0 3 0 0 0 0 1 29 26:55 3:53 3:34 19:28 0 0 00.0
R. Getzlaf C 1 0 1 5 3 2 0 0 1 1 1 31 24:52 3:48 3:45 17:19 6 13 31.6
O. Kase RW 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 15 8:21 0:00 0:00 8:21 0 0 00.0
R. Kesler C 0 2 0 0 1 2 1 2 5 1 1 32 23:45 2:49 2:52 18:04 13 10 56.5
H. Lindholm D 0 0 -1 1 1 2 0 0 3 1 2 29 24:02 3:11 4:12 16:39 0 0 00.0
J. Manson D 0 0 -1 0 0 1 0 0 3 0 1 23 18:14 0:03 5:13 12:58 0 0 00.0
B. Montour D 1 0 1 3 1 3 1 2 0 1 1 22 19:39 3:03 0:09 16:27 0 0 00.0
C. Perry RW 0 0 1 0 2 0 1 2 2 0 0 20 17:22 3:55 0:00 13:27 0 0 00.0
R. Rakell C 0 0 1 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 24 20:06 3:48 0:00 16:18 0 1 00.0
N. Ritchie LW 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 16 8:54 0:00 0:00 8:54 0 1 00.0
L. Shaw RW 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 2 0 0 14 8:45 0:00 2:47 5:58 0 0 00.0
J. Silfverberg LW 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 24 19:01 3:11 0:39 15:11 0 0 00.0
S. Theodore D 0 0 -1 1 0 1 3 6 0 0 1 21 16:20 3:51 0:25 12:04 0 0 00.0
N. Thompson C 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 3 0 0 16 9:02 0:15 2:04 6:43 3 5 37.5
A. Vermette C 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 2 1 0 0 25 15:35 3:08 1:42 10:45 9 6 60.0

Anaheim Ducks Scratches

Player Detail
S. Vatanen Lower Body Injury
J. Boll Scratched
K. Holzer Scratched

Tampa Bay Lightning

Time On Ice Faceoffs
Player G A +/- SOG MS BS PN PIM HT TK GV SHF TOT PP SH EV FW FL %
B. Boyle C 0 0 0 2 2 0 0 0 2 2 0 22 14:12 3:48 0:00 10:24 8 4 66.7
J. Brown RW 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 5 1 0 0 12 6:47 0:00 0:27 6:20 0 0 00.0
B. Coburn D 0 0 -2 1 3 3 1 2 5 0 0 24 16:42 0:01 3:30 13:11 0 0 00.0
J. Dotchin D 0 0 1 2 3 1 0 0 3 0 0 20 15:08 0:00 0:03 15:05 0 0 00.0
J. Drouin LW 1 0 0 6 3 0 1 2 1 0 1 28 22:15 7:05 0:00 15:10 1 0 100.0
G. Dumont C 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 14 6:00 0:15 0:00 5:45 5 1 83.3
V. Filppula C 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 2 0 0 25 17:49 1:35 3:44 12:30 7 8 46.7
J. Garrison D 0 0 0 2 0 3 0 0 2 0 1 26 20:55 0:00 3:26 17:29 0 0 00.0
V. Hedman D 0 0 0 3 4 0 1 2 2 0 2 28 23:11 5:45 0:09 17:17 0 0 00.0
T. Johnson C 0 1 1 2 2 0 1 2 1 1 1 27 22:58 2:47 1:58 18:13 7 10 41.2
A. Killorn C 1 0 -1 3 1 0 0 0 0 2 1 27 20:11 5:52 3:46 10:33 0 0 00.0
N. Kucherov RW 0 2 0 6 3 0 1 2 1 0 0 27 23:25 7:05 0:09 16:11 0 0 00.0
V. Namestnikov C 0 0 -1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 26 20:58 3:59 2:23 14:36 3 4 42.9
C. Paquette C 0 0 0 2 0 1 1 2 1 0 0 15 8:27 0:07 1:31 6:49 2 2 50.0
B. Point C 0 0 -1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 21 16:29 1:26 0:00 15:03 3 2 60.0
A. Stralman D 0 0 0 4 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 28 24:33 1:37 4:16 18:40 0 0 00.0
A. Sustr D 0 0 -1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 20 14:26 0:00 2:34 11:52 0 0 00.0
J. Vermin RW 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 11 6:45 0:00 0:00 6:45 0 0 00.0

Tampa Bay Lightning Scratches

Player Detail
O. Palat Undisclosed
M. Bournival Upper Body
L. Witkowski Scratched

Goaltending Summary

Anaheim Ducks Goaltending

Player SA GA Saves SV% TOI PIM
J. Bernier 37 2 35 .946 65:00 0

Tampa Bay Lightning Goaltending

Player SA GA Saves SV% TOI PIM
B. Bishop 16 2 14 .875 64:49 0

 

Categories: Hockey, Sports
Tags: , , , , , ,

0 Comments

You can be the first one to leave a comment.

Leave a Comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.