The Backcheck: Late rally earns Bolts a point vs. Vegas

The Tampa Bay Lightning may have only earned one point on Thursday night, but they probably deserved two. After snapping a five-game losing skid with a win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday, the Bolts took another step in the right direction against the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday, allowing just nine shots on goal through two periods before falling 4-3 in overtime.

"We were skating, defending," said Lightning head coach Jon Cooper. "We were doing everything. We had the puck a lot of the night. It's hard (for them) to create offense when you've got the puck.
"When we were in our own zone, we were quick on it. We were winning our battles. That's a big thing for us. When we were going through our streak, we weren't winning any battles. We were winning them tonight."

The Bolts faced very early adversity when Vegas opened the scoring just 27 seconds into the contest. After a mix-up on a line change, the Golden Knights ended up with a 2-on-1 before Teddy Blueger fed Keegan Kolesar for an easy tap-in on the back door.
But Tampa Bay was quick to respond and tied the game just 4:01 later. Can you guess who scored the goal? Of course, it was Brayden Point, who has now scored a goal in nine of his last 10 games at AMALIE Arena and recorded at least one point in all 10 of those contests.
After Steven Stamkos took a pass from Point and skated over the Vegas blue line, he fed a pass to the high slot for Nikita Kucherov, who fired a shot on Jonathan Quick before Point immediately jumped on the rebound for his team-leading 40th goal of the season.
With his primary assist, Kucherov extended his wild home point streak to 23 games, tied for the 12th-longest in NHL history and making him the first player to post a run of 23 games since Joe Sakic did it back in the 2000-01 season.
After a scoreless second period, William Karlsson gave Vegas a 2-1 lead with a shorthanded goal 2:27 into the third period when a bouncing puck found its way over the stick of Mikhail Sergachev, who may have been interfered with in his pursuit of Karlsson on the backcheck.
Following a Mikey Eyssimont cross-checking penalty shortly after, the Golden Knights got out to a 3-1 lead with a power-play goal from Chandler Stephenson with 14:21 remaining.
Then, the temperature turned up a few notches. After Pat Maroon was whistled for offside, he took a bump from Kolesar and responded with a shot of his own before everyone got together and grabbed a partner.
Sticks and gloves were all over the ice with multiple dogpiles forming as all 10 players on the ice were given 10-minute game misconducts following the scrap with 7:44 remaining.
That intensity looked to give the Lightning some added life en route to scoring two goals to send the game to overtime.
"I think that whole melee, even though we were short out of it, it gave us a boost," Cooper said. "I think it helped us."
Tampa Bay stuck with it and got back within one at the 17:53 mark of the third. After as clean of a faceoff win as you can get from Point, Sergachev fed Kucherov at the right circle before he hammered a one-timer off the left post and past Quick to make it a one-goal game.
As the Lightning continued to push, Stephenson took a high-sticking penalty that gave the Bolts a 6-on-4 advantage with Andrei Vasilevskiy pulled for an extra attacker.
After Sergachev took a pass at the point, he fed the puck over to Kucherov, who wound up for another big one-timer that fooled everyone, as the All-Star winger instead sent a pass to the bumper for Point, who had a ton of net to bury his 41st goal of the season following a heavy overcommitment to the one-timer by Quick. The goal came with 27.7 seconds remaining and earned a point for Tampa Bay as the game went to overtime.

A Jack Eichel shot in overtime was able to squeak throw Vasilevskiy before Alec Martinez poked the puck over the goal line to win the game for Vegas, but all in all, Thursday night felt like another step in the right direction for the Lightning against a quality opponent that has been very strong on the road this season. Coming into the game, Vegas had the second-most points among all NHL teams since the All-Star Break.
"Guys played really well for two and a half (periods), maybe actually the full game," said Sergachev. "Just a couple shifts that kind of cost us, but yeah, I see a lot of improvement on our team."
Recently acquired forward Tanner Jeannot continued to stick out for the Bolts on Thursday night, registering a Lightning season high nine hits and earning another decision in a fight after dropping the gloves with Brayden McNabb. Jeannot's physicality certainly looks to be a big asset for Tampa Bay with the playoffs around the corner. Opponents don't want to play against him and he's more than just a grinder, he's got some skill as well with three assists through six games since the trade.
"It's great that he's on your bench and not somebody else's," said Cooper. "To have him there, I think guys grow a little bit. He's a tough player, but he's a good player. To have that mix is a big asset for us."
The Bolts may not have earned two points on Thursday, but the play in the defensive zone looked much better and that was without Victor Hedman, who remains day-to-day with an upper-body injury. The Lightning's next chance to continue the trend in the right direction will come Saturday night against the Chicago Blackhawks. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. ET.