The Backcheck: Another comeback victory

That was a fun one.
In a playoff-style atmosphere at AMALIE Arena on Thursday night, the Tampa Bay Lightning earned a seventh third-period comeback win this season (tied for the most in the NHL) and defeated the New York Rangers 2-1 in a shootout.

As has been the case for a lot of this season, the Bolts got off to a strong start and came out with plenty of energy, beating the Rangers to loose pucks, winning battles along the boards and sustaining offensive zone time.
After outshooting New York 6-1 to start the game, the Lightning felt the pressure of a pushback from the Rangers, who went on to record nine of the next 10 shots on goal and took a 1-0 lead with 7:15 remaining in the first period off the stick of Mika Zibanejad, who has been a nightmare for Tampa Bay with seven goals over his last four regular season games against the Bolts.
Zibanejad's goal was the only shot that found the back of the net in the first period for either team and a big reason for that was the two elite, Russian goaltenders in Andrei Vasilevskiy and Igor Shesterkin. Vasilevskiy, who was playing for the second-straight night, was forced to make two huge saves on Trocheck and Kravtsov during the first period, while Shesterkin had two big stops of his own on Stamkos and Kucherov.

The second period featured more balanced play throughout the 20 minutes, with both teams generating scoring chances and grabbing momentum at different moments. The Lightning were forced to kill off two penalties after Nick Perbix was whistled for delay of game and Ian Cole got sent off for a holding penalty on Chris Kreider. Even without a top penalty killer in Erik Cernak, who left the game after taking a hit in the first period and did not return, Tampa Bay's penalty kill stood strong, as it has throughout the month of December. The Bolts have killed off 32 of 34 penalties in December, good for a league-best 94.1% success rate.
Vasilevskiy stook tall again for the Lightning in the middle frame, as did Shesterkin for the Rangers, with both goaltenders making big saves throughout the period. The netminders were the story of the evening, with incredible stops being made on both ends of the ice throughout the contest.
"I've got to be on top of my game every night," said Vasilevskiy. "Tonight was a pretty good game for the fans, back and forth action. I'm glad that we went back to the locker room with the W tonight."
Needing a goal to tie the game entering the third period, the Bolts got one from one of the hottest goal scorers in the NHL over the past month, Brayden Point. Looking to find a goal, Lightning head coach Jon Cooper reunited Point with Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov, as we've seen him do on various occasions throughout the years.
The line instantly clicked with multiple dangerous chances generated and capitalized 5:32 into the third period with Kucherov feeding a perfect backhand pass to Stamkos in the slot. While everyone thought the Bolts captain would fire a shot on net, he calmly slid a pass right through the legs of New York defenseman Ryan Lindgren where Point was waiting on the backdoor to slide the puck off Shesterkin and into the net for his team-leading 20th goal of the season.
Point has now scored goals in seven consecutive games at AMALIE Arena, tying Kucherov (2021-22) for the longest such run in Lightning franchise history. Point has scored a goal in three straight games and eight of his last 10 contests. For Cooper, the slight tweak to the lines worked, and it's always nice for him to have that elite trio in his back pocket.
"It is, especially games like tonight when goals are hard to come by," Cooper said. "You need the big boys to see if they can get one and they did."

Along with the top line, Cooper combined Brandon Hagel, Anthony Cirelli and Alex Killorn, who went on to score the game-winning goal in the shootout for Tampa Bay. Together at 5-on-5, the trio out-chanced the Rangers 8-2, including five high-danger chances to New York's zero.
After Victor Hedman was whistled for tripping in overtime, the Bolts were forced to kill a 4-on-3 penalty and did so successfully, with great play by Vasilevskiy and a huge shot block from Cole, who has been terrific for Tampa Bay since joining the team in free agency this summer.
"He's been such a big part of our team with the absence of McDonagh being gone and somebody having to kind of fill that spot," said Cooper. "Nobody's ever going to fit McDonagh's shoes or fill them, but Cole has stepped in and accepted a bunch of the responsibilities that Mac had and has done a phenomenal job, and none bigger than what he did for two minutes on that penalty kill."
After getting the game to a shootout, Point and Artemi Panarin traded goals before Killorn won it for the Lightning in the sixth round. Tampa Bay continued their terrific play on home ice, where they are 14-4-1 in this season and have won seven of eight contests in December.
The two teams will meet one last time on April 5 at Madison Square Garden, but if another playoff series occurs between the two Eastern Conference foes, I don't think anyone will be complaining after watching one of the best games of the season on Thursday night.