The Tampa Bay Lightning opened Tuesday with perhaps their best period of hockey since play resumed following the Olympic break, and they were rewarded with an early lead.
By the time the night ended, the Lightning had handed the Seattle Kraken a 6-2 loss to improve to 41-21-4 this season with a game that saw Nikita Kucherov score a hat-trick and five points.
“There was urgency in our game tonight, there’s no question,” coach Jon Cooper said. “We’ve had 10 games since the break, we’ve won three of them. Whatever cushion we had in hoping to make the playoffs was dwindling, so this is a big trip for us. We’ve got to get points, but I thought we earned our points tonight. It was a solid game all the way around from the goalie all the way out, but a lot of it was because of the urgency we played with.”
Lightning forward Gage Goncalves extended his point streak to a career-best four games with the opening goal, preventing a Seattle zone exit before redirecting a pass from Brayden Point 5:45 into the game from the slot to make it 1-0.
“I’m just trying to build off every game, and obviously playing with a bunch of Hall of Famers helps a lot, too,” Goncalves said of his career season. “I’m pretty lucky and those guys help me out a lot, so it’s been a good season so far. I’m really happy with it.”
Teammate Jake Guentzel earned the second assist on the play for his 150th point with the Lightning in his 146th game, becoming the fastest player in franchise history to score 150 points. He supplanted Brian Bradley, who hit the mark in 158 games.
Tampa Bay then added to the lead on another strong play in the offensive zone, as Kucherov stripped the puck from Seattle’s Ben Meyers before finishing a give-and-go passing play with Brandon Hagel to make it 2-0 with 1:11 left in the first period.
The goal was Kucherov’s team-leading 35th of the season.
Kucherov didn’t stop with one goal, extending the visitors’ lead to 3-0 less than a minute into the second period by burying a 3-on-1 rush chance at the net following some slick passing by Hagel and Anthony Cirelli.
The Kraken got back in the game with back-to-back goals, the first coming on a Bobby McMann shot in the left faceoff circle 10 seconds after the 3-0 goal and the other being a Jordan McCann shot off the left goalpost following a drive to the net midway through the middle frame.
Tampa Bay scored three goals in the third period to seal the win.
“We played simple, we played the game fast, we didn’t spend much time in our zone and then we got the next one,” Cooper said of the third period. “That was a big thing. It’s a one-goal game and it’s either gonna be 3-3 or 4-2, and I thought we pushed and deserved to get that goal. And then to close it out without giving up one, I liked our all-around game.”
The Lightning restored their two-goal lead 4:35 into the third period on another strong forecheck—Hagel stripped the puck from Kraken forward Matty Beniers below the goal line before getting the puck to the front of the net, where Cirelli buried the loose puck.
Hagel buried a power-play goal late in the third period for his fourth point of the game. Cirelli then set up Kucherov for his fifth point of the night, an empty-net hat-trick goal to close the scoring.
“Best player in the world,” Goncalves said of Kucherov. “He continues to show it. We need him a lot. He’s obviously our best player, and he’s been unbelievable for us and we expect that every night and he seems to bring that every night. It’s awesome to have him on our team.”
Hagel finished the night with a goal and three assists, while Cirelli had a goal and two assists. Goncalves had a goal and assist, while goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy finished with 16 saves in the win.
"We've got a lot of special players on this team, and when you get to play with some special players it makes it easy on yourself,” Hagel said. "We’re fortunate enough to have lots of those in Tampa Bay.”
Tampa Bay will now travel to face the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday. As they get set to continue their road trip, the team feels that Tuesday’s win was a step forward as they continue their chase to win the Atlantic Division.
Hagel was among those who liked the effort.
“By no means are we out of what we got ourselves in, but we’ve got to learn how to win and I think today was the right direction,” he said. "We’ve got to enjoy the win, but at the same time we’ve got to move on and worry about the next game. Just get back to that feeling again, and this was a step in the right direction.”
Benjamin’s Three Stars:
- Nikita Kucherov, TBL (3 goals, 2 assists)
- Brandon Hagel, TBL (Goal, 3 assists)
- Anthony Cirelli, TBL (Goal, 2 assists)
