Tampa Bay used that energy in the building and continued the impressive offensive start, making it a 3-0 game with a power-play goal at the 8:04 mark of the first. After Kucherov took a pass from Sergachev at the right circle, he quickly surveyed his options before sending a pass to Point in the bumper. Point immediately reacted and turned towards the net before he fired a shot right over the blocker of Binnington into the top left corner for his second goal of the period and eighth of the season.
St. Louis added a power-play goal of their own at the 16:50 mark of the first, but the Bolts used another strong start to take a 3-1 lead to the first intermission.
"We scored like three goals in the first 10 minutes and then they called a timeout and Pointer had a breakaway right after that, so yeah, I like the way we responded," said Lightning head coach Jon Cooper. "It's tough because we had a little bit of time to think about it, but to come out the way they did was obviously big for us."
Following a strong start against the Boston Bruins last Monday, Tampa Bay had a lackluster second period that led to a 5-3 loss at home. The Bolts used that second period as a reminder on Friday night, knowing they had to be better heading into the middle frame against the Blues.
"It's obviously important," said Point. "I thought our first period against Boston was really good and then the game just kind of got away from us. To come out today and put together a good 60 minutes is important."
Things looked like they could get a little messy in the second period when Jordan Kyrou scored at the 6:24 mark to make it a 3-2 game, but the feelings of anxiety didn't last long for Lightning fans after Hagel responded with his sixth goal of the season just 18 seconds after the Kyrou goal.
Point used his speed to make a great play and steal the puck off Niko Mikkola before firing a shot that went just wide past the glove of Binnington. After Point's shot rimmed around the boards, Kucherov was right there to collect the puck and feed Hagel, who turned and ripped a quick shot that restored Tampa Bay's two-goal lead.
"You've got a 3-0 lead and now you're looking up there, half the game's left and now it's 3-2," said Cooper. "We were doing a lot of good things, but it's kind of these games like, 'How do you keep responding? How do you respond when somebody hits your goalie? How do you respond after the loss to Boston? How do you respond when you have a 3-0 lead and it's 3-2?'
"They kept responding and hence, we won tonight."
The Lightning have done a terrific job of learning from their past mistakes this season and doing so in a hurry. When bad things happen in a game, it feels as though Tampa Bay immediately identifies and corrects those mistakes before making the necessary adjustments heading into the following contest.
"I think the Boston game, as well as we may have played in the first, they taught us some lessons in that game," Cooper explained. "You just can't hang your hat on a first period, just like we couldn't hang our hat on tonight's first period. We had to keep going and I thought we did that.
"We protected our net much better tonight. Did they get some looks? Of course, they did. Even that third period, we may have been in our end a little more than we liked, but in the end, we really didn't give them anything and that's what you want to do."
