The Backcheck: Bolts tie franchise record with 11th-straight home victory

"This whole week is a big test for us, and these are all playoff caliber teams," said Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper. "They're big. They're heavy. They're skilled.
"So, yeah, it's a test. And so far, we're doing pretty darn well on the test."
The Bolts won an 11th-straight game on home ice Thursday night with a 3-2 victory over the Boston Bruins. The 11th-straight win tied a franchise record for Tampa Bay's longest winning streak on home ice, matching a previous mark set during the 2019-20 season.

It was just the sixth regulation loss of the season for Boston, who entered Thursday night's contest with 80 points, 12 points ahead of the next-closest team in the NHL standings.
"They've had an unbelievable regular season so far," said Victor Hedman. "For us, we knew we had to bring our A-Game today. We didn't look past this game, but we know we've got one more before the break.
"We want to take care of home ice. Two out of three so far and we're looking forward to finishing it off on Saturday."

In a playoff-style atmosphere at AMALIE Arena, the Bolts and B's played a tight-checking game throughout the night, featuring back-and forth action and terrific goaltending on both ends of the ice.
After Tampa Bay earned a power play near the halfway point of the first period, Brandon Hagel took a pass from Nikita Kucherov in the low slot before shifting the puck to his forehand and roofing a shot over the blocker of Linus Ullmark to give the Lightning a 1-0 lead.
With the primary assist, Kucherov collected his 50th helper of the season in just his 47th game. He became the 12th skater in NHL history to reach 50 assists in 47 games or fewer multiple times, joining Gretzky (14x), Lemieux (9x), Orr (5x), Savard (4x), Coffey (3x), Oates (3x), Trottier (2x), Jagr (2x), Kurri (2x), Forsberg (2x) & Stastny (2x).
Kucherov's impact on the big divisional game didn't end with that one assist. Entering the third period tied at one, the Bolts were looking to regain the lead and did so just 58 seconds into the final frame.
With a faceoff in the Bruins defensive zone to the right of Ullmark, Steven Stamkos won the draw cleanly back to Kucherov, who wired a wrist shot on goal that deflected off the skate of Brayden Point and into the net to give Tampa Bay a 2-1 lead.
For Point, it was his team-leading 28th goal of the season and 12th in his last 16 games. As for Stamkos, his faceoff win and secondary assist extended his point streak to 10 games. He joined Connor McDavid as the only two players in the NHL to record multiple point streaks of 10 or more games this season.
Boston responded quickly with a goal from Pavel Zacha to tie the game at two 1:26 after Point's goal, making for an intense 17-plus minutes to wrap up regulation. And with the game in the balance, the Lightning's top players showed up again, with Hedman scoring the game-winning goal at the 13:19 mark of the third.
As Point flew through the neutral zone, he sped into the Boston end and sent a pass through the crease that just missed Stamkos. But Point's elite speed caused Brandon Carlo to blow a tire and slide into Ullmark, knocking the goalie to the ice. As Point's pass rimmed around the boards, Hedman pinched in from the point and hammered a slap shot into the net for his third goal of the year.
"It was about time," Hedman said. "It was about time."
The Big Swede has been excellent in his own end all season long, and while the goal scoring may not be where he's wanted it to be, he's been consistently racking up points over the past several weeks. Since December 1, his 20 assists are the fifth-most among all NHL defensemen.

Hedman's ability to jump up into the play and showcase his offensive prowess has always been a weapon for the Lightning's back end and that was on full display on Thursday night. Most people in the building were gasping at the missed opportunity on the 2-on-1 for Tampa Bay, but Hedman had his head up the whole way, saw Ullmark go down, and made the smart play to fire the puck on net at a high velocity.
"Yeah, I saw Linus go flying," Hedman said. "I didn't know what happened, if it was our guy or their guy, but I took a chance to shoot for the net.
"You look at the replay and two of their guys went into the net. It was nice to see that one go in."
The Bolts have been so good with third period leads over the years and Thursday was no different, with Tampa Bay locking things down over the final 6:41 to wrap up the 3-2 win and move to 31-15-1 on the season.
That was a huge win for the Lightning in a measuring stick game for both teams. The Bolts have one more game before the All-Star break against another playoff team in the Los Angeles Kings. Following the win over Minnesota on Tuesday and Thursday's victory over Boston, Tampa Bay is feeling good about the current status of their game, but they know they've got one more big test before a well-deserved break.
"We've played some pretty sound, structured hockey," Cooper said. "We're getting contributions from all four lines and all six D and the goalie's playing well.
"That's what happens, so we've been rewarded for it."