By After a 25-day break, the Tampa Bay Lightning were back at the Benchmark International Arena and picked up right where they left off by beating the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 to win their 38th game of the season, and their 11th straight win at home.
Jon Cooper was absent from the bench as he went to British Columbia to be with his family following the death of his father.
Assistant Coach Rob Zettler filled in for Cooper, and he pushed all the right buttons in the Lightning’s 4-2 win.
The first period ended scoreless as both teams shook off some rust from the long layoff and had trouble sustaining any sustained offensive pressure
Rob Zettler discussed the first-period execution. “The first period, our execution wasn’t great. Vasy made some key saves early in the first period, and then I thought we started to find our game. We controlled most of the play in the second period and played a lot in their end.”
The exception is Nikita Kucherov, who set up two goals that were disallowed after Toronto coaching challenges, as Kucherov was offside on both goals.
The Lightning, however, would get going in the second period as Braydon Point scored his 12th goal of the season to put the Bolts up 1-0 at 7:07 of the second period.
This would be Braydon Point’s game back after missing 11 games with a lower-body injury.
Less than a minute later, Gage Goncalves deked Toronto goalie Anthony Stolarz to give the Lightning a 2-0 lead.
The Lightning would score two goals in the third period. Nikita Kucherov would score his 30th of the season to put the Lightning 3-1.
After a John Taveres goal, cutting the lead to 3-1, Braydon Point struck again for the Lightning to make it a 4-1 game.
In addition to notching his 30th goal of the season, Kucherov added his 700th and 701st career assists, becoming just one of 64 NHL players to reach 700 assists in their career, and just the third Russian player to achieve that milestone.
Kucherov has also recorded points in 11 straight games.
But Toronto wasn’t done; it showed some resiliency and kept battling. Matthew Knies would add another goal with the goaltender pulled in favor of the sixth attacker to make the score 4-2, and that would be the final score.
It was another solid performance in goal for Andrei Vasilevskiy, who had 32 saves in the win, reminding everyone that he is still one of the best goalies in the game today.
Braydon Point talked post-game about what has made this team so special this season.
We’ve really jelled together as a team. I think guys have really bought into their roles on this team. And I think for the most part of this season, we’ve been playing smart with the puck and not giving teams chances and just kind of waiting for ours.”
With the win, the Lightning are 20-1-1 in their last 22 games, solidifying their spot atop the Atlantic division as they now have an eight-point lead over Montreal and Detroit.
The Lightning’s win ends Toronto’s three-game winning streak, and the Maple Leafs must regroup as they are now six points out of the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
The Lightning will travel to Raleigh for a matchup with the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday Night.
