The Backcheck: Bolts rally over the Rangers

With 17 games remaining in the regular season entering Thursday night, measuring stick games are out the window for the Tampa Bay Lightning. The playoff race in the Eastern Conference is tight and the Bolts need points.

Battling a New York Rangers team that has led NHL in points percentage since the start of February, Tampa Bay knew it wasn’t going to be an easy night at AMALIE Arena. And it wasn’t.

The Bolts went into the first intermission trailing 2-0 and looking for answers. Over the ensuing 18 minutes in the locker room, those answers were found as the Lightning stormed back and outscored New York 6-1 over the final 40 minutes to earn two huge points in a 6-3 win. Here’s how they got there.

The Rangers earned the first power play of the game at the 6:21 mark of the first period when Conor Sheary was whistled for an offensive-zone tripping penalty, but the Lightning penalty kill did a great job to hold New York to zero shots on goal and get back to five-on-five.

Bolts fans were hopeful that their team would gain momentum from that penalty kill moving forward, but it ended up being nearly the exact opposite. The Lightning were only able to muster three shots on goal with limited offensive zone time over the final 11 minutes of the period and surrendered back-to-back goals to enter the first intermission in a 2-0 hole.

Artemi Panarin opened the scoring with 6:02 remaining in the opening frame when the Rangers skated into the Bolts end on a 2-on-1 before Vincent Trocheck sent a pass to Panarin, who beat Andrei Vasilevskiy with a one-timer to make it 1-0 with his 36th goal of the year.

Less than three minutes later, Jack Roslovic gained entry into the offensive zone and cycled the puck down low to Mika Zibanejad, who sent a pass to the slot, where Braden Schneider was waiting to fire a one-timer through the five hole of Vasilevskiy and make it 2-0 New York with 3:04 remaining in the first.

On the ice for both goals against, Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov went to the locker room for the first intermission frustrated, disappointed and knowing they had more to give. Using that as fuel, the dynamic duo combined for 11 points over the next two periods with Point recording a hat trick and three assists and Kucherov scoring a goal of his own and adding five helpers.

Point got the Lightning on the board at the 12:41 mark of the second period when he made a great play to intercept a pass from Jonny Brodzinski at the New York blue line and hand the puck off to Kucherov as the two entered the offensive zone on a 2-on-1. As he’s done throughout the season, Kucherov sent a perfect return pass right onto the tape of Point, who roofed a shot over the glove of Shesterkin to make it a 2-1 game with his 34th goal of the season.

Building on that momentum, Tampa Bay got the game tied up late in the middle frame with Anthony Duclair netting his second goal in as many games to make it 2-2 heading into the third period.

After making a terrific pass to the slot for Point, Duclair made his way around the Rangers net, jumped on a loose puck in front and quickly fired it into the open net to even the score with his 18th goal of the year.

Going from 2-0 to 2-2, the Bolts were in a great spot heading into the third period on home ice, but it was New York that scored the go-ahead goal only 1:48 later to take a 3-2 lead.

One of the elite defensemen across the NHL, Adam Fox made an impressive pass across the offensive zone to Jack Roslovic, who fired a shot past Vasilevskiy for his first goal with the Rangers to put his new team back up by one.

But the Lightning were unphased and responded with a goal from Point just 1:53 later to make it a 3-3 game.

With the two teams skating at 4-on-4 following a scrum behind the New York net moments earlier, Point showcased his elite skill and skating when he took a pass from Victor Hedman and danced through Erik Gustafsson before beating Shesterkin for his second goal of the game.

As the two teams continued to battle for the go-ahead goal, Will Cuylle was whistled for slashing and sent Tampa Bay to the power play with 7:52 remaining in regulation. It took 37 seconds for the Bolts’ top power-play unit to take advantage with another stupendous play from Point and a beautiful finish from one of the best power-play players in NHL history, Steven Stamkos.

Taking a pass in the slot from Anthony Cirelli, Point braced for contact from Zibanejad and sent a no-look, backhand pass to Stamkos, who hammered a one-timer over the blocker of Shesterkinto send AMALIE Arena into a frenzy and make it a 4-3 game with his 25th goal of the campaign.

Point completed his hat trick 2:03 later after his backhand shot hit the post and ended up in the corner, where Kucherov was waiting to gain possession and send a quick, hard pass back to the slot for Point to put a redirection over the glove of Shesterkin for his fourth career hat trick.

Point added his sixth point of the night with 3:38 remaining in regulation when he found Kucherov, who buried an empty-net goal for his fifth point of the evening and 39th goal of the year.

Vasilevskiy finished the night with 25 saves on 28 shots against for his 23rd win of the season as the Lightning improved to 35-25-6 on the year with a home record of 21-9-4.

Bolts by the Numbers

Brayden Point recorded six points (3-3—6) to tie Doug Crossman and Nikita Kucherov for the Lightning franchise record for points in a single game. The six-point night set a new career high for Point, who has now scored three hat tricks this season, tied with Wendel Clark for the most in a single season in Tampa Bay franchise history. Point’s four career hat tricks are tied with Tyler Johnson for the fifth-most in Bolts franchise history. Point has lit the lamp in nine of his last 12 games (11-8—19) and is up to 73 points on the year (36-37—73).

Nikita Kucherov recorded the sixth five-point game of his career (1-4—5), the most in Lightning franchise history and tied for the fourth-most among all active NHL skaters. Kucherov is up to 112 points on the season (39-73—112) and joined Connor McDavid (6x) as the only two active NHL skaters to record three or more 70-assist seasons.

Anthony Duclair scored a goal for the second time in as many games with the Lightning and finished the night with a +3 rating, two hits and two takeaways in 14:47 time on ice. Duclairjoined Ryan Craig and Chris Joseph as the only three players in Tampa Bay franchise history to light the lamp in each of his first two games with the club. Duclair is up to 30 points on theseason (18-12—30), marking his fifth 30-point season over his past six campaigns.

Victor Hedman skated in his 1,038th career game and passed Vincent Lecavalier to take sole possession of the second-most games played in Lightning franchise history. Hedman picked uptwo assists and is up to 66 points on the year (12-54—66) with12 points over his last eight games (3-9—12).

Steven Stamkos scored his fifth game-winning goal of the season and team-leading 13th power-play goal. Stamkos is up to 56 points on the year (25-31—56).

Bolts Quotes

Jon Cooper: "We have a group that wants to make the playoffs and they believe they can. By no means is one win putting us in the playoffs. We still have a long way to go, but earlier in the year, I think with this group and so many new faces that we had, we probably found a way to lose that game. Now, under 20 left, this team's finding a way to win those games."

Anthony Duclair: "A lot of talent. A lot of speed. That falls right into my strengths and it's been pretty fun so far. Hopefully we can continue doing that. It's obviously, I think, a well-balanced team. You look at the forward group and D-corps and obviously one of the best goalies in the world, if not the best. It's fun so far and, like I said, we want to keep going."

Steven Stamkos: "These games mean a lot to us down the stretch. We have no option but to give it our all and leave it out there. Hopefully we continue to keep going the way we are. It's been nice. We've got a little bit of a spark here with a couple new guys in the lineup. They've played great for us and it just seems like a new energy. We need to keep it going."

Krenner’s Three Stars

1. Brayden Point

2. Nikita Kucherov

3. Anthony Duclair

Lightning Look Ahead

- Saturday, March 16 at Florida Panthers, 6 p.m. ET, Amerant Bank Arena

- Tuesday, March 19 at Vegas Golden Knights, 10 p.m. ET, T-Mobile Arena

- Thursday, March 21 at San Jose Sharks, 10:30 p.m. ET, SAP Center