The Tampa Bay Lightning are back to playing hockey after a short pause for the holidays, and they returned in dynamite fashion this weekend.
Tampa Bay treated fans to a rowdy 4-2 road victory over their rival Florida Panthers on Saturday before closing the back-to-back with Sunday’s 5-4 shootout win against the Montreal Canadiens at Benchmark International Arena.
Tampa Bay is now 22-13-3 this season and will play their final game of 2025 on Wednesday against the Anaheim Ducks on the road. The Lightning enter that game on a four-game win streak.
Penalty kill steals the show on Saturday
Wins come in many forms.
It was the Lightning penalty kill that stole the show on Saturday night, erasing nine of 10 penalties as the Bolts returned from the holiday break by fighting off the Florida Panthers with a 4-2 win at Amerant Bank Arena.
The Lightning were dinged for 26 penalties in the game, their most in franchise history and most since they collected 24 infractions on Nov. 6, 1997 against the Los Angeles Kings.
The parade to the penalty box still wasn’t enough to keep them from a third straight victory.
“The most important thing is two points, getting the win. How that happens could come in various ways. Obviously tonight we had to kill a lot of penalties and it was a physical battle, but you’ve got to win the game,” forward Anthony Cirelli said. “Proud of our group tonight for battling hard and coming away with the win.”
Despite surrendering the game’s first goal to their in-state opponent, Tampa Bay battled to rip three straight goals through the Florida defense.
An unlucky bounce gave Florida a 1-0 lead, but the Lightning took the momentum back with a shorthanded goal and, eventually, their first lead of the night.
Panthers forward Eetu Luostarinen opened the scoring 5 minutes, 37 seconds into the game when a Lightning clearing attempt hit his stick in front of the net before filtering to the back of the net.
It appeared that the hosts had a prime opportunity to build on their early lead after Tampa Bay was sent to the penalty kill, but Jake Guentzel and the Lightning had other ideas.
Cirelli got the puck in the defensive zone and flipped it to a racing Guentzel, who ripped his shot over the glove of Sergei Bobrovsky on a shorthanded breakaway to tie the game with 6:55 left in the first period.
The Lightning stole their first lead of the game with 7.3 seconds left in the period on Pontus Holmberg’s second goal in as many games.
Yanni Gourde won a battle in the neutral zone and sent a pass to Holmberg at the right faceoff circle, where Holmberg’s shot beat Bobrovsky over the right leg pad.
Tampa Bay didn’t wait to build on that lead in the second period, as Nikita Kucherov made it 3-1 Lightning 2:31 into the middle frame on a 2-on-1 with Brayden Point. Kucherov’s shot beat Bobrovsky through the five-hole.
“You finish those periods the way we did, it’s nice to go into the break with the lead. Then we get to extend it,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “So now it’s a two-goal lead, it’s just a little harder to come back.”
The Panthers made it a one-goal game on the power play, this goal coming from Brad Marchand 7:05 into the second period.
Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy was particularly busy in the third period, when the home team outshot Tampa Bay 13 to five. Vasilevskiy finished the night with 24 saves and was central to the Lightning penalty kill that included six straight minutes of penalties early in the third period of a one-goal game.
“That’s when you need your goalie,” Cooper said. “Ultimately, he’s your best penalty killer, and they had a couple good looks and he was there to bail us out. That’s what happens when you’re pretty much short the entire period. It was a pretty gutty win for the group to not only have to face Florida but to face the amount of penalty kills we had tonight.”
Kucherov’s second goal of the game went into the empty net in the game’s final minute to close the scoring. He co-led the team in scoring alongside Anthony Cirelli, who had two assists.
The Lightning survived 10 Florida power plays in all, surrendering only nine total power-play shots on goal.
It was a game filled with penalty minutes, hits and animosity with some offense sprinkled in. Most importantly, Tampa Bay left with the divisional win.
“Everyone stepped up, everyone took care of their business,” Guentzel said. “We come down, eat a couple kills there at the end, goalie was fantastic and we got the job done. That’s just a big two points coming out of the break, and hopefully it gets us going.”
Benjamin’s Three Stars:
- Nikita Kucherov, TBL (2 Goals)
- Jake Guentzel, TBL (SHG)
- Andrei Vasilevskiy, TBL (24 saves)
