Lightning Strikes Oilers Early

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On a night where the NHL united in solidarity for their Hockey Fights Cancer initiative, the Bolts were able to return to Tampa and gather their 11^th win of the season with a 5-2 victory over superstar Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers.

“You have to have that quiet confidence that if you play the right way it’s going to be difficult for the other team to compete with you,” Steven Stamkos said. “When we skate and compete and execute like we did tonight, for the most part, we’re going to give ourselves the best chance to win.”

The night began with the Lightning donning lavender jersey for their pregame warmups before both teams were joined on ice by cancer survivors from the surrounding community. Each player held a personal “I Stand With” sign as a showing of solidarity, followed by a moment of silence.

Once the puck dropped the goals came early and often.

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Tampa had the first six shots on net of the game and the scoring opened 4:40 into the first when Steven Stamkos fired a wrist shot top shelf and past the Oilers’ G Mikko Koskinen.

Koskinen played well early, sending back a number of quality chances for the Bolts, but couldn’t stay perfect as Tampa was absolutely clicking on offense, creating dangerous chances regularly and repeatedly put back their own rebounds, forcing Koskinen to make save after save.

Brayden Point, fresh off of being named the NHL’s third star for his play last week, added to his team-leading goal count when he lit the lamp with just 26 seconds remaining in the first and gave the Bolts a 2-0 lead heading into the first intermission.

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The goal was Point’s ninth of the season.

“We wanted to get out to a good start because the past few games we kind of had a slow start,” Yanni Gourde said. “It was really good to finally get that first goal and from that moment on I think we kept grinding and kept playing well.”

7:28 into the second period the Oilers were able to cut the Lightning lead to just one on a goal from C Ryan Strome, his first of the season, but Tampa would strike back quickly and never look back.

Just 47 seconds after Strome’s goal, Yanni Gourde scored on assists from Ryan McDonagh and Point, pushing the Lightning lead back to two at 3-1. Nikita Kucherov would add one more goal with 1:01 left in the second and Tampa took a comfortable 4-1 lead into the second intermission.

The third period was largely a formality with the Bolts’ lead looking safe behind more stellar play from Andrei Vasilevskiy.

Vasilevskiy made 33 saves on 35 shots on goal – including a couple of highlight reel stops – and earned his league-leading eighth win of the season.

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“[Vasilevskiy] is undoubtedly the reason we win a lot of hockey games,” Stamkos said. “If we don’t start well he’s there to bail us out and we started well today, they had a big push and he bailed us out. . . He’s huge for us and he was outstanding again tonight like he is every night.”

Despite a power play goal from Leon Draisaitl 40 seconds into the third period, the Oilers failed to put up meaningful chances late, and with 11:37 remaining in regulation Kucherov netted his second goal of the night – his seventh of the season – and closed the door on any comeback opportunity.

 “When you get the scoring through the lineup it’s just a confidence builder for the guys who are used to scoring and they’re feeling good about themselves,” Head coach Jon Cooper said. “Everybody’s kind of chipping in in the way you need and the way our team’s built. When everybody’s feeling good about their roles, whether it’s the PK guys, or the power play, whatever it is, it’s a good recipe and that’s kind of what’s been happening.”

The Lightning will return to action on Thursday at 7:30 PM as the New York Islanders (8-4-2) travel to Tampa for their first matchup with the Bolts this season.

1ST PERIOD 4:40 Steven Stamkos (5) Assists: Nikita Kucherov 0 1 19:34 Brayden Point (9) Assists: Yanni Gourde, Tyler Johnson 0 2

2ND PERIOD 12:32 Ryan Strome (1) Assists: Oscar Klefbom 1 2 13:19 Yanni Gourde (7) Assists: Ryan McDonagh, Brayden Point 1 3 18:59 Nikita Kucherov (6) Assists: Steven Stamkos, Braydon Coburn 1 4

3RD PERIOD 0:40 Leon Draisaitl (9) (Power Play) Assists: Ty Rattie, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins 2 4 8:23 Nikita Kucherov (7) (Power Play) Assists: J.T. Miller, Steven Stamkos 2 5