The Backcheck: Bolts blank Avalanche

With a four-game road trip coming up, the Tampa Bay Lightning wanted to use Thursday night's matchup against the Colorado Avalanche to generate some positive momentum before hitting the road, where the Bolts are .500 this year with a 12-12-0 record.
Tampa Bay succeeded with a convincing 5-0 win over Colorado in the first meeting since the two teams collided in last year's Stanley Cup Final. Surely, the Lightning wanted to get a little payback, but head coach Jon Cooper insisted that Thursday night was more about getting their game in order than anything else.

"To be honest, it had nothing really to do with Colorado," said Cooper following the emphatic win over the Avalanche. "It was what it had to do with our previous two games.
"We're going on a tough four-game trip against some of the best teams in the West. We couldn't go out losing three in a row out of the break. Like I said, it was more entirely about us and not who we were playing tonight.
"We needed an effort, and they gave it tonight."
The Bolts came out of the gate with a strong first period and earned the first power play of the game with 6:23 remaining in the opening frame. After a 1-for-6 performance with the man advantage against San Jose Tuesday night, Tampa Bay knew they had to improve on special teams going into Thursday's contest.
"Special teams was a big reason we lost the game on Tuesday, obviously," said Brandon Hagel. "Tonight, we responded. That's what good teams do, and I think we're showing our way."
The first unit fired five shots on goal over the first 1:06 of the man advantage, but couldn't get anything past Alexander Georgiev, who was able to cover a shot from Brayden Point and get a faceoff in the Colorado zone.
From there, Ross Colton won a faceoff against J.T. Compher and gained possession for the Lightning before Anthony Cirelli sent a pass to the front of the net for Corey Perry, who received the puck with his back to Georgiev before turning around, making a smooth move to his backhand to avoid a poke check, and scoring his 10th goal of the year to give the Bolts a 1-0 lead.

Perry's up to six power-play goals on the year, tied with Hagel and Nikita Kucherov for the third-most among Tampa Bay skaters. Since the start of last season, Perry has scored 12 power-play goals for the Lightning, trailing only Kucherov (15), Point (21) and Steven Stamkos (25).
The Bolts finished the opening period with a 15-9 shot advantage over the Avs and ended the frame with some fireworks from Ross Colton, who threw a big hit on Logan O'Connor before the two dropped the gloves for a second time after duking it out in Game 3 of last year's Stanley Cup Final.
In the middle frame, the Lightning kept the ice tilted and took over the game, outscoring Colorado 3-0 with two goals from Hagel and one from Point.
The second goal of the night was a big one. The Avalanche entered Thursday's contest with a conversion rate of 23.9% on the power play, good for ninth-best in the NHL. After Ian Cole got sent to the box for holding, Tampa Bay held Colorado to three shots on the power play and successfully killed off the penalty despite Cole, one of the team's best penalty killers, sitting in the box.
Using momentum from that kill, the Bolts got an all-effort goal with two of the hardest workers on the team working together to double the lead.
After Hagel took a pass from Killorn at the Lightning blue line, he skated through the neutral zone and lightly flipped the puck into the Avalanche zone with Mikko Rantanen draped on his back.
With two Colorado defenders between him and the puck, Anthony Cirelli skated around Devon Toews, lifted the stick of Samuel Girard and sent a pass across the crease to Hagel, who had got up and beat Rantanen to the slot before firing his 20th goal of the season past Georgiev.
"That's a swing goal, for sure," said Cooper. "I can't remember how quick we followed one up after that, but special teams, which kind of was our anchor the night before, now comes through tonight."
Cooper was right. The next one came quick.
It was merely 1:57 after the Hagel goal that Tampa Bay made it a 3-0 game and, naturally, the goal came on the power play.
Winning the puck in the corner after the initial faceoff, Hagel sent a drop pass in front to Kucherov, who was stopped by the pad of Georgiev, but Point was right there to jump on the rebound and bury his team-leading 32nd goal of the year, tied with Alex Ovechkin for the eighth-most in the NHL.
With his primary assist, Kucherov extended his home point streak to 17 games, eclipsing his previous franchise record of 16 straight home contests with a point. The Lightning All-Star has scored five goals and added 27 assists for 32 points during that 17-game point streak.
With 1:53 remaining in the second period, Hagel and Killorn both picked up their third points of the night to make it a 4-0 game.
After Rantanen took a pass from Nathan MacKinnon near the Avalanche blue line, he tried to make an inside move from backhand to forehand, but Hagel cut him off and forced a neutral zone turnover.
Killorn alertly jumped on the loose puck and skated into the Colorado zone before dropping the puck to Hagel and bodying Bo Byram, giving Hagel a clean look at the net to fire home his second goal of the night.

"We made a little tweak to our neutral zone to not give their players so much time coming up ice," said Killorn. "We were just going to be a lot more aggressive.
"I think we did a good job. We ended up creating a lot of turnovers and that's how we scored two of the goals."
The Bolts added the fifth goal of the night at the 5:44 mark of the third period with Mikhail Sergachev taking a pass from Point and firing a quick wrist shot through traffic that beat Georgiev for Sergachev's seventh goal of the season.
From there, it was all about getting the shutout for Andrei Vasilevskiy, who has been tremendous for Tampa Bay all season and just narrowly missed out on multiple shutouts with some last-minute goals by the opposition throughout the year.
On Thursday, 'The Big Cat' was perfect, stopping all 30 shots in his first regular shutout since November 26, 2021.
"I think, for him, it's a little bit of a weight off his shoulders," said Killorn. "He's obviously one of the best goalies in the league. I think when you look at the stats and stuff, you can say what you want. He's been a great goalie for us.
"For him, I think it's going to be huge momentum going forward and I know he's happy about it."
As Vasilevskiy continues to rack up milestones, he once again completed a feat that only one other goaltender in NHL history has accomplished. With his shutout win, Vasilevskiy improved to 11-0-0 at AMALIE Arena since December 10 and joined Ken Dryden as the only goalies to ever record multiple home win streaks of 11 games. Vasilevskiy has a .942 save percentage and 1.90 goals against average during that span.
With the win, the Bolts extended their home point streak to 14 games, establishing a new franchise record. Tampa Bay has not lost a home game in regulation since December 6, 2022.
It may have been just another game where the focus was getting the level of play back to where it needed to be. But for a team that had to watch the Avalanche raise the Stanley Cup the last time they faced off at AMALIE Arena, the Lightning had to feel a little something extra after earning those two points.
"Emotions were high, for sure, for this game," said Killorn. "They're a great team. They played well. I think tonight we had a complete game. We were very aggressive.
"They're obviously a great team, so looking forward to seeing them, hopefully later in the playoffs."
Before that scenario becomes possible, the Bolts will have to battle the Avs one more time, with a rematch scheduled just four days from Friday. The teams will battle at Ball Arena in Colorado on Tuesday night at 9 p.m. ET.
Tampa Bay's road trip kicks off with a 1 p.m. ET matchup against the Dallas Stars this Saturday at American Airlines Center in Texas. The Stars currently lead the Central Division with 70 points through 53 games.
Following Tuesday's tilt vs. Colorado, the Bolts will face off with the Arizona Coyotes on the second half of a back-to-back Wednesday night at 9 p.m. ET. From there, the road trip will conclude on Saturday, February 18, with a game against the Vegas Golden Knights at 10:30 p.m. ET. Vegas currently leads the Pacific Division with 66 points through 53 contests.