Tampa Bay Lightning fans got an early Christmas present from their favorite team on Monday night at Benchmark International Arena, and they didn’t have to wait long to unveil it.
Pontus Holmberg gave Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead only 21 seconds after the opening faceoff for the team’s fastest lead of the season, and the Lightning then worked for a 4-1 victory over the St. Louis Blues in their final game before the holiday break.
The Lightning are now 20-13-3 this season, a record that placed them second in the Atlantic Division standings after Monday’s game.
Coach Jon Cooper liked his team’s effort in their second-straight win.
“You think about it, five periods ago we were down 3-0 to Carolina. Five periods later, we've got four more points than we had 48 hours ago,” Cooper said. “So it was big for us, big for the guys, especially going into the break. You hate rolling into these on a downer, so good all the way around and an early Christmas present for the coach.”
Cooper’s team led less than 30 seconds into the game.
Defenseman Darren Raddysh batted a flying puck down at the right point to hold the offensive zone and sent a shot toward the Blues’ net, where Holmberg deflected the puck at the hashmark to make it 1-0 only 21 seconds into action.
“It's a huge momentum shift,” forward Oliver Bjorkstrand said of the early lead. “So obviously really nice there. It's nice having a good start to the game. It just gets the guys going, and it's a little bit easier building off of it.”
Raddysh was the player who doubled the home team’s advantage later in the period, this time on Tampa Bay’s first power play of the game.
The defenseman’s one-timer from the top of the odd-man advantage beat St. Louis goalie Jordan Binnington 9:12 into the game after hitting Blues defender Justin Faulk.
It was Faulk that put the Blues on the scoreboard, sending a one-timed slap shot from the right point through Andrei Vasilevskiy 6:43 into the second period to make it 2-1.
Anthony Cirelli earned his 10th goal of the season to restore the two-goal Lightning lead only 1:18 later, tipping home another deep shot by Raddysh to make it 3-1 with 11:59 left in the second period.
“He's just been unbelievable,” Lightning forward Jake Guentzel said of Raddysh. “He's got a lethal shot, and when he gets open on the power play it's pretty cool to see what he can do. He's playing unbelievable hockey, and he's been fun to watch."
Raddysh’s three points led all players and also allowed him to reach 100 for his NHL career, all with the Lightning.
He hit the mark in his 206th career game, becoming the second-fastest defenseman to the mark in team history behind only Dan Boyle’s 172 games.
"It's special,” Raddysh said of 100 points. “I'm fortunate to play in the NHL. Coming into the NHL pretty late, it's a special moment for me."
The defenseman wasn’t the only player to hit a milestone on Monday—Bjorkstrand scored his 400th career NHL point with a power-play goal that made it 4-1 early in the third period.
The goal was Bjorkstrand’s sixth this season. He became the fourth Denmark-born player in NHL history to reach 400 career points, joining Nikolaj Ehlers, Frans Nielsen and Lars Eller.
Bjorkstrand now has four goals and seven points across his last seven games.
"Earlier in the season I had probably similar looks. Right now, they're just going in,” Bjorkstrand said. “So I don't know if that's a confidence thing or just maybe getting a little bit better looks, but try to keep it going."
Guentzel and Nikita Kucherov each had two-assist games for Tampa Bay.
Vasilevskiy finished with 23 saves for Tampa Bay, which enters the holiday break riding consecutive wins.
The Lightning now get four days off and will return to action this Saturday when they visit Amerant Bank Arena to play the Florida Panthers at 7 p.m.
They then have a quick turnaround to play the Montreal Canadiens back in Tampa at 5 p.m. Sunday.
“Going into a Christmas break with four days off, I think it's obviously a lot nicer getting a win,” Bjorkstrand said. “But it was two good wins, and now we have a little break, but we’ve got to be ready for the next one.”
Benjamin’s Three Stars:
- Darren Raddysh, TBL (Goal, 2 assists)
- Andrei Vasilevskiy, TBL (23-save win)
- Jake Guentzel, TBL (2 assists)
