The Lightning played this first game after the Olympic break with their head coach on their minds. Jon Cooper was not behind the bench, having returned home after the passing of his father. The Lightning picked up a win in his absence, completing a perfect six-game homestand.
Not surprisingly, it wasn’t a flawless performance. Both teams needed to shake off the rust that accumulated from the extended break. But for the bulk of the game, the Lightning carried play. They held an advantage in shots, attempts, scoring chances, and goals.
The first period was a choppy frame, as the clubs misfired on some passing sequences. Still, the Lightning put two pucks past Anthony Stolarz. Credit Toronto’s video coach, however, who correctly spotted that both plays started with an offside entry. Neither goal counted.
The Lightning had a few defensive miscues in the first period that fueled oppositionlooks. The Leafs’ best chance in the frame came on a William Nylander breakaway. But Andrei Vasilevskiy made the save. The game remained scoreless after 20 minutes.
The Lightning grabbed control of the game in the second period. After posting only four shots on net in the first, they recorded 20 SOG in the middle stanza and tallied two goals in a 51-second span. Brayden Point, in his first game back after sustaining an injury in mid-January, opened the scoring. He took a pass from Charle-Edouard D’Astous (also coming back from a January injury), took the puck wide of the net, and scooped it in at 7:07. On the ensuing shift, Nikita Kucherov sprung Gage Goncalves on a breakaway. Goncalves finished a forehand deke at 7:58. Kucherov collected his 700th career assist.
Vasilevskiy was less busy than Stolarz in the second, but he made a couple of key stops to preserve the Lightning's lead. He made another save on a Nylander breakaway and later denied a dangerous rush chance from Oliver Ekman-Larsson.
In the third period, the Leafs switched up their forward line combinations, putting Matthew Knies on a unit with Auston Matthews and Max Domi. That line applied some offensive-zone pressure early in the frame but couldn’t score. At the other end, Kucherov extended the lead when he completed a nice passing sequence with Point and Goncalves. Kucherov’s right-circle one-timer at 2:59 made it 3-0. It was his 30th goal of the season.
The Lightning’s three goals stood as the game’s only tallies until the final four minutes. Then the clubs combined to post three goals in 54 seconds. Moments after Jake Guentzel missed a shorthanded open-net chance (he put it off the post), the Leafs scored on a counter. John Tavares roofed a shot from the slot at 16:19. With Stolarz back in the net, the Lightning answered on the next shift. Point finished a shot from the slot at 16:30. The Leafs scored another sixth-attacker goal when Knies slipped a long-range shot past Vasilevskiy at 17:13. The Leafs applied more extra-attacker pressure but could get no closer.
It was a mostly solid performance from the Lightning, who received timely saves from Vasilevskiy and a terrific outing from the line of Point, Kucherov, and Goncalves.
The Lightning will complete their back-to-back on Thursday in Carolina against a Hurricanes team that didn’t play on Wednesday.
Lightning Radio Three Stars of the Game (as selected by Phil Esposito):
- Brayden Point — Lightning. Two goals and assist.
- Nikita Kucherov — Lightning. Goal and two assists.
- Gage Goncalves — Lightning. Goal and two assists. (Career-high three points).
