The Lightning rewarded Jon Cooper in his 1,000th game with a hard-fought overtime win.
It was a tale of three different periods. The Lightning dictated play for a majority of the first period, owning a big possession advantage and generating a handful of dangerous chances. They scored one goal, a J.J. Moser tally at 13:30—he wired a left-circle shot under the glove of Lukas Dostal. The Lightning could have scored more than one. In fact, they did score another goal, but Brayden Point’s tally off a Gage Goncalves feed was taken off the board due to Anaheim’s successful offside challenge. At the other end of the ice, the Ducks were quieter. But in the opening minutes, Nikita Nesterenko’s shot from the slot hit where the post and crossbar meet. In the latter part of the frame, Olen Zellweger had three point-blank shot attempts blocked in front of Andrei Vasilevskiy. But that was the extent of Anaheim’s first-period pressure.
The second period featured numerous fumbled pucks on both sides. Some of those mistakes led to opposition chances. Vasilevskiy made a lunging save on Leo Carlsson after a Lightning turnover just inside the blue line. But another miscue led to the tying goal. Charle-Edouard D’Astous attempted to pass the puck out of the defensive zone, but his stick blade went over the puck. Ross Johnston set up Jansen Harkins, who finished his shot into an open side of the net at 15:17.
The Lightning grabbed the lead back before the period ended, however. Nikita Kucherov wired a cross-ice pass from the right circle to Max Crozier at the left point. Crozier snapped a one-timer to the net, where Point gained position on Ian Moore and deflected it in.
If the Lightning controlled much of the first and the second was mostly even, the Ducks owned the third. They applied heavy forechecking pressure and created several Grade-A looks. Mason McTavish forced a turnover behind the Lightning net, and Beckett Sennecke wristed a left-circle shot into the top of the net at 3:57 to tie the game at two.
The Lightning answered when Chris Kreider tripped Point, giving them their second power-play chance of the game. It was a quiet power play for the majority of the man advantage, and the Ducks even created a shorthanded in-alone chance for Alex Killorn that Vasilevskiy stopped. Moments later, however, Brandon Hagel zipped a cross-ice pass to Kucherov at the right circle, and Kucherov one-timed a shot into the top of the net at 8:00. The goal came with just 12 seconds left in the man advantage.
But the Lightning got into penalty trouble soon after, getting called for back-to-back infractions. They navigated through the first kill but not the second. Pavel Mintyukov knocked down a clearing attempt at the offensive blue line and fed McTavish. With two Lightning players caught up high, McTavish had room to skate into the slot and fire a shot over Vasilevskiy’s stick. The goal at 13:02 tied the game for a third time.
The Lightning did manage the final minutes well, preventing any other dangerous chances and securing at least one point when regulation ended.
In overtime, they secured the second point. Unlike Sunday’s overtime against Montreal, they had a majority of the possession. They also recorded the three best chances of the session. Dostal stopped two point-blank shots from Cirelli. But after a Ducks clear, the Lightning won it. Darren Raddysh delivered a long pass from the defensive zone to Hagel, who entered the offensive zone. Hagel squeezed free at the left circle and slid a pass back to Raddysh, who had skated down the ice and barrelled to the front of the net. Raddysh redirected the puck over Dostal at 2:47.
The Lightning have now won five straight. They will ring in the New Year before completing the back-to-back on Thursday against Los Angeles.
Lightning Radio Three Stars of the Game:
- Darren Raddysh — Lightning. OT winner, assist.
- Andrei Vasilevskiy — Lightning. 24 saves.
- Nikita Kucherov — Lightning. Goal and assist.
