A dominant second period and a career night from Pontus Holmberg on Thursday kept the Tampa Bay Lightning unbeaten on home ice this season.
The Lightning scored four straight goals in the middle frame to take a 5-1 lead over the Winnipeg Jets and then held on for a 6-4 victory at Benchmark International Arena.
Tampa Bay is now 8-3-1 this season.
“In the second period things kind of rolled our way. Guys made plays when they had to, and I think the Cirelli line had a big matchup, and they came through…Pontus had a heck of a game and I think he earned all his points tonight,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said.
The home team got off to its fastest start of the season on Thursday.
Nikita Kucherov corralled the puck in the left corner of the offensive zone and feathered a pass to Brayden Point in the high slot. Point’s shot beat Winnipeg goalie Stuart Skinner into the top left corner of the net for a 1-0 lead just 2:20 into the game.
After Jets defenseman Neal Pionk’s shot from the point evened the score in the closing minutes of the first period, offense escalated.
Tampa Bay regained the lead on the first of four consecutive goals in the middle period—Dominic James stole the puck from a Jet on the left wall to create a rush chance, burst into the zone and fed Conor Geekie for a tap-in 2-1 goal at the right post.
A power-play goal extended the Lightning lead late in the second period. Holmberg accepted a pass near the goal line, powered to the net and fed Anthony Cirelli at the left post, where Cirelli fought through a check to make it 3-1.
Tampa Bay now has a power-play goal in five straight games.
“Just trying different things, I think shooting the puck,” Brandon Hagel said of the power play’s recent success. “(Assistant coach Jeff Halpern) is doing an incredible job at dissecting it. He takes this thing to heart. He wants nothing but the best, and we want nothing but the best. It's going to take time. It’s different. It's new. It's changed for the last three years, but you had the exact same power play together for over 10 years. So when new things happen, it doesn't change overnight. It doesn't change over one or two years. Things have got to change. You’ve got to try new things, and that's what we're doing. We're finding a little bit of success right now, so we're going to continue to do that, and hopefully, it continues to go the right way.”
Holmberg stayed busy in the period, feeding John Carlson for a one-timer and setting up a goal for Hagel at the net in the final minute.
Hagel and Cirelli each finished with three-point nights, and Hagel credited Holmberg’s performance as a key reason for the scoring on Thursday.
“It’s showing he's always had it,” Hagel said of Holmberg’s offense. “That just doesn't pop out of nowhere. He's getting more confident. He’s a Swiss Army knife. If you ask him to do whatever, he's gonna do it. I really enjoy his game.”
Winnipeg scored three unanswered goals in the third period to cut its deficit to one before Holmberg’s career night sealed a Lightning victory.
Dylan Samberg’s one-handed redirection was followed by Pionk’s second goal of the night on a shot from the right hashmark and a 6-on-4 Kyle Connor score from the right faceoff circle with just under three minutes left in the game.
“Maybe we took some things for granted in the third period against a team that was
pushing hard and not giving up,” Cooper said. “That was awesome by Winnipeg and probably taught us a lesson. So, we were happy we squeaked that one out but would have liked to have a little bit more breathing room than that game turned out to be.”
Holmberg capped the game on an empty-net goal with 1:31 left in the game to earn the first four-point night of his NHL career.
“There were a couple of good plays,” Holmberg said of his game. “Good finishing, so that was good.”
“It was a good night.”
Andrei Vasilevskiy finished with 17 saves as the Lightning improved to 6-0-0 on home ice, tying the franchise record for the longest home win streak to start a season (also 2020-21, 2017-18).
Tampa Bay next heads to play a road matinee on Saturday, a 2 p.m. matchup with the Nashville Predators at Bridgestone Arena.
Benjamin’s Three Stars:
- Pontus Holmberg (Goal, 3 assists)
- Brandon Hagel, TBL (Goal, 2 assists)
- Anthony Cirelli, TBL (Goal, 2 assists)
