After a disappointing start to the season, the Lightning looked to dominate the struggling Coyotes to extend the win streak to three games. Being win-less at home to start the season has not sat well with the team, but that would change as the Lightning took advantage of a lackluster Coyotes team who have yet to win a game this season. An explosive opening period became the driving force for the Lightning as they easily took care of Arizona to finally win a game in front of the home crowd.
Scrappy intro
From the moment the puck dropped the tone of the game was set. Liam O’Brien and Patrick Maroon dropped the gloves shortly after the game began. It was not much of a fight, but regardless both went to the box with fighting majors. Minutes after the fight Tampa received their first power play of the night. Ilya Lybushkin was called for Hi-sticking and the Bolts looked to get on board early. Arizona killed off the penalty and looked to rebound following the penalties. Just when it looked like the Coyotes tipped the ice in their favor, Tampa opened up the scoring. On a 2-on-1 opportunity that then became a 3-on-1 Tampa scored the first goal of the game. Steven Stamkos fed the puck to Alex Killorn who then fired a wrist shot past Ivan Prosvetov.
Extending the lead
Minutes later Killorn doubled the score with another goal. He fired a puck that looked like was initially saved, but it just squeaked past the pads of Prosvetov to give the Bolts a 2-0 lead. Tampa was not done scoring and on their second power play of the night it was who else but the captain. Stamkos fired the puck off the feed from Hedman that was initially stopped. Stamkos then banked the shot from behind and extended the lead to 3-0. While at the start at the period Arizona had control, Tampa roared and took over for the remainder of the period.
Vasilevskiy stays perfect
Arizona came out of the second period hungry for a goal. While they had numerous chances to score, Andrei Vasilevskiy kept the door shut preserving the shutout for the time being. Coyotes continuously remained dominate in the face-off circle and looked to use that to their advantage. Unfortunately, Arizona constantly had bad breaks and despite being the better team in the period, they could not answer Vasy. Maroon still was serving his misconduct penalty from the previous period, but that did not stop Tampa’s offense from remaining poised.
Penalty troubles
Later on in the period Tampa once again added to their already large lead. Alex Barre-Boulet tipped in a shot from Mikhail Sergachev to extend the lead to 4-0. The goal was a warm welcome back to Tampa for Barre-Boulet after recently being re-claimed off waivers from Seattle. Tampa continued to make it difficult for the Coyotes to score while maintaining offensive pressure. Just like the first period Tampa was able to regain control of the game. Arizona put up a good fight, but it was clear they could not keep up with the star power Tampa has. Penalty struggles continued for Maroon as he was called for holding the stick with under a minute to go in the period. Lightning continued to play as the more dominate team which would continue into the final period.
Too little too late
To start the period Tampa not only had to kill off the Maroon penalty, they also coughed up another penalty to give Arizona a bit of 5-on-3 time. Lightning killed off both penalties and played more conservatively to preserve the lead. Arizona finally did get a break after what they thought was another unfortunate shot off the crossbar. The shot from Lawson Crouse did in fact cross the goal line giving Arizona their first goal of the game. Ultimately the gap was too much to handle for Arizona as it was all Lightning from here.
A goal years in the making
Andrej Sustr scored off a deflection in front to give the Lightning a 5-1 lead. The goal was Sustr’s first since the 2017-2018 season and was a confidence booster. With the assist, Killorn reached 200 assists in his career. That was all she wrote as the Lightning finished off their dominate play with a 5-1 victory. This was Tampa’s first win at Amalie Arena and was a much needed victory after a rough start to the season. Bolts look to keep the momentum going when Washington comes to town to start off November hockey.
Absolutely blasting Britney rn. pic.twitter.com/efmws43qdw
— Tampa Bay Frightening 👻 (@TBLightning) October 29, 2021
Three stars of the game
1st Star: Alex Killorn – 2 goals, 1 assist
2nd Star: Steven Stamkos – 1 goal, 2 assists
3rd Star: Andrei Vasilevskiy – Stopped 24 of 25 shots faced
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