TAMPA, FLORIDA – The Tampa Bay Lightning are good at hockey. That’s not breaking news. On Saturday night, they faced off against the San Jose Sharks from the Western Conference. San Jose, sitting in second place in the Pacific division, isn’t a pushover, either.
The Lightning struck early in this one as rookie Mathieu Joseph scored his 12th goal of the year at 3:32 of the opening frame. Joseph sits second in the NHL in goals by a rookie this season. Joseph cleaned up a Anthony Cirelli shot in front of Shark’s goalie Martin Jones.
They’d go up 2-0 at the 17:51 mark when Alex Killorn put his 11th of the year past Jones, unassisted.
With 20 seconds left in the first and on the first power play of the game, San Jose cut the lead in half thanks to Evander Kane’s 18th of the season.
Sharks come back early in the second…
Kane would tie the game with his second of the night less than a minute into the second frame.
…and then…
The Bolts would re-take the lead thanks to a Yanni Gourde goal at 7:29 and then get their two-goal lead back on Victor Hedman’s seventh of the season mid-way through the period.
The captain leads the way in the third
After a feed from Nikita Kucherov off the boards, Steven Stamkos scored his 25th of the season giving the Bolts more breathing room about five minutes into the third period making it 5-2.
Kane is sent to the box after a roughing call and it allowed the captain to net his second in a row to make it a four-goal, 6-2 Lightning lead with 5:45 left in regulation.
The Sharks would get a late goal from Marcus Sorensen with 36 seconds left to cut the Bolts lead in half.
Your final from Amalie would be 6-3 as the Lightning get win number 37 on the season.
THREE STARS:
- Steven Stamkos – The captain notched three points including two goals in the third period to lead the scoring.
- Andrei Vasilevskiy – Save for a late goal in the third, Vasy looked stellar most of the evening, saving 36 of 39 shots.
- Nikita Kucherov – Led the Bolts in ice time and had two key assists building on his NHL-leading 56 helpers.
