Johnny, Johnny its an OT Comeback
By The Hockey Hottie on December 28, 2016Tampa, Fla. — The Lightning came into tonight’s contest with the third best power play in the NHL and are currently sitting in tenth place in the Eastern Conference, just two spots out of wild card contention. With injuries plaguing the team, the Lightning were sitting seven points behind the Canadiens in the Atlantic Division.
The old cliche “a two goal in hockey is the worst lead in all of sports” can be used again tonight. The Tampa Bay Lightning took that to heart and came out in the third period. “I thought the third was our best period,” Jon Cooper said. And it was. Two goals to tie and then the Tyler Johnson shot that deflected off an opponent’s stick changed everything.
Andrei Vasilevskiy the young Russian born goaltender for the Lightning got the start tonight, as Ben Bishop is also sidelined with an injury. Valtteri Filppula was also out of the line up tonight due to missing a meeting earlier in the day.
The Canadiens took a quick lead with a from behind the net pass, as Vasilevskiy misplayed the puck, by Paul Byron, who put it right on the tape of Alexander Radulov, with a snap of the wrist it was the first goal of the game.
The Lightning answered back at the ten minute mark in the first period, with a nice goal from Tyler Johnson. The assist to Kucherov and Palat, it was Johnson’s tenth goal of the season. It was a great goal in true triplet fashion.
Victor Hedman received a two minute minor penalty at 13:23 in the first that lead to the Canadiens second goal of the game. It was a weak holding call, but nonetheless Hedman sat in the sin bin and Montreal went ahead by 2-1. The power play goal was scored by defenseman Shea Weber, assists to Byron and Max Pacioretty. That’s quite a power play unit for Montreal!
The insult to injury kept coming in the second period, as the Lightning had a big defensive breakdown in front of Vasilevskiy, and the Canadiens were able to go ahead 3-1. Chris Terry was in the right place at the right time and wristed one by the downed Lightning goaltender. The assists by Carr and Macarron at 3:07 in the second period.
The Lightning had a couple of really good scoring chances in the second period, but Carey Price stoned every one of them.
The third period was a quiet one, until around the seven minute mark. Shea Weber threw a really nasty hit on Vladislav Namestnikov. Namestnikov went down, and was attended to. There was no call made on Weber Namestnikov took an early trip to the locker room, and play resumed.
At 6:59 Alexander Radulov received a two minute minor for slashing giving the Bolts a chance to score a goal. The Lightning who came into this game with an above average power play struggled to keep the puck in the zone. They managed to get a shot off towards the end, but again Carey Price did a great job of keeping the score 3-1.
The Lightning finally were able to get another one by Price at 11:14, Nikita Kucherov made a beautiful backwards pass to Victor Hedman and he wristed one right by the glove hand of Carey Price. The score was now 3-2 Montreal, and the crowd came to life.
At 15:19 in the third, almost as karma had her way, Shea Weber received a two minute minor for tripping allowing the Bolts an opportunity to score the game, and tie is what they did. Ondrej Palat ripped one high and into the net at 16:30.
While the fans were still celebrating the tying goal, Nikita Kucherov had a breakaway, only to be called a two minute minor penalty for too many men on the ice. I don’t think the officials in this game are going to win any awards. The Bolts managed to kill off the penalty and the game ended in a tie 3-3 each team receiving a point.
The Lightning were quick to strike in overtime as Tyler Johnson got the game winning goal at 1:36.
The Lightning will be home tomorrow night at 7:30 to play the Toronto Maple Leafs and New Year’s Eve as well vs. Carolina.
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7:30 PM ET, December 28, 2016
Amalie Arena, Tampa, Florida
T. Johnson (Lightning – C): Goals: 2, Assists: 0
O. Palat (Lightning – LW): Goals: 1, Assists: 1
S. Weber (Canadiens – D): Goals: 1, Assists: 0
Player Summary
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Goaltending Summary
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Tags: Andrei Vasilevskiy, Max Pacioretty, Ondrej Palat, paul byron, shea weber, tyler johnson
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