During the first five minutes of Tuesday’s pre-Halloween contest against the New Jersey Devils, the Tampa Bay Lightning’s effort looked downright spooky. Even eerily reminiscent of Saturday’s 7-1 loss at Arizona in the final game of their recent road trip. However, it didn’t take long for the Lightning to rebound and show their usual high-powered form for the remaining 55 minutes. By the end of the night, it was the Devils who looked like they just came out of a frightening haunted house. The only difference is that this one featured a lot of Lightning goals instead of jump-scares.
Making the night more unusual was the fact that a combination of the usual offensive contributors and unlikely sources made it happen on the night before Halloween.
Bolts defenseman Braydon Coburn registered only the second multi-goal game of his career, while Brayden Point notched a career-high four assists and five points, Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov, and Ryan McDonagh each picked up three points, Yanni Gourde tallied three assists, while Tyler Johnson earned a goal and an assist as the Lightning (8-2-1) won their fourth straight home game, an 8-3 thrashing of the Devils (5-3-1). Andrei Vasilevskiy picked up the win, making 27 saves on 30 shots. His counterpart, Devils goalie Keith Kinkaid, didn’t fare as well, allowing seven goals on 38 shots before being pulled for Cory Schneider, who let in one goal on six shots.
This game marked the second time this season that the Lightning have scored eight goals in a game, a feat they also accomplished in an 8-2 home win over Columbus on October 13th. Despite the relative ease with which they accomplished the win, it didn’t come without a little early adversity.
The Lightning dug themselves an early hole only to see Coburn, of all people, come to the rescue.
Throughout the early minutes of the first period, the Lightning couldn’t get out of their own way in the neutral zone, as turnovers there led to a pair of Devils goals. Miles Wood notched his first of the season after he redirected Sami Vatanen’s shot from the boards just 1:01 into the game. A McDonagh turnover eventually led to that goal. At the 5:04 mark, a turnover by Cedric Paquette led to Wood feeding Travis Zajac for a breakaway, where he slipped the puck between Vasilevskiy’s pads.
Although it looked like the Devils might run the Lightning out of the building early on, Coburn came to the rescue with his first goal since February 1, 2018 at Calgary, ending a span of 38 regular season games without scoring. Point started it off with a clean zone entry and great forechecking that led to Coburn’s point shot hitting Andy Greene and flying past Kinkaid at 7:30. Coburn notched his second goal of the night off a rush with Paquette and Adam Erne. Collecting a pass from Paquette, Coburn skated down the slot with a wide open look, burying a wrist shot past Kinkaid at 13:30, tying it 2-2. While Tampa Bay had their issues in their own zone, they also settled down after Coburn’s first goal and largely controlled play in New Jersey’s zone for the majority of the remainder of the game.
Power play goals provided the Lightning with a three-goal cushion and a brief glimmer of hope for the Devils.
Before the Bolts’ power play took over, the line of Point, Johnson, Yanni Gourde helped the Lightning get their first lead of the night at even strength. Just 31 seconds into the second period, the trio swarmed the Devils, leading to Johnson setting up Gourde. Gourde’s shot was stopped, but Point was on the doorstep to knock home the rebound for a 3-2 Tampa Bay lead. The Bolts continued to control the action throughout much of the middle stanza, out-shooting the Devils 21-11 in that time.
The tide began to dramatically shift in the Lightning’s favor at the 4:39 mark, when Blake Coleman went to the box for four minutes after clipping McDonagh with a high stick. During the ensuing power play, a couple of familiar weapons in the Lightning’s man-advantage arsenal showed up in full force. Moments after being denied on a one-timer chance thanks to a highlight-reel save by Kinkaid, Kucherov ripped a one-timer past the Devils’ netminder for his fourth of the year at 6:33. With the Lightning still on the power play, Travis Zajac took a slashing penalty, giving the Bolts a 5-on-3 for 1:22. At the 8:08, Stamkos collected a feed from Kucherov and blasted a one-timer of his own past Kinkaid, increasing Tampa Bay’s a 5-2 lead to 5-2 moments after he struck the crossbar. Stamkos’s second goal of the season was the 350th of his NHL career.
The Devils got one back at 16:47 during a power play chance of their own, trimming the Lightning lead to 5-3. With traffic in front, Kyle Palmieri took a shot from the left circle that bounced off the stick of McDonagh and past Vasilevskiy for his team-leading ninth goal of the season.
The Lightning poured it on in the third period, unsatisfied with a two-goal lead.
Johnson scored his fifth of the year when he knocked home a rebound after Point worked his magic with the puck before firing a shot that forced Kinkaid to make a save, making it a 6-3 game at the 3:40 mark. Only 1:22 later, the line of Stamkos, Kucherov, and J.T. Miller, reunited for the first time since the season opener, worked a gorgeous passing play, resulting in Kucherov firing it home off a great pass from Miller for a 7-3 lead, chasing Kinkaid in the process.
A mere 49 seconds later, the Point line was at it again, creating a chance off the rush where Point shot it wide. However, McDonagh, who jumped up into the play, was at the side of the net and pounced on the fortunate bounce. He banked it in past Schneider, who was seeing his first action of the season after replacing Kinkaid. McDonagh’s goal, his first of the season, completed the scoring, and it capped off a night in which the bolts overcame a rough patch early on to dominate the rest of the way.
The Lightning return to action on Thursday night when they host the Nashville Predators at Amalie Arena. Puck drops at 7:30 pm.
Game Notes
-This was the first time Coburn scored two goals in a game since he did it almost nine years to the day as a member of the Philadelphia Flyers. He scored two goals for them in a game against the Carolina Hurricanes on October 31, 2009.
-Point’s five-point performance was only the second time this season in the NHL that a player has recorded five points. Philadelphia’s Jakub Voracek also did it against Ottawa on October 10 when he notched two goals and three assists.
-Since the start of 2017-18, the Lightning are 13-2-0 in games following a loss where they gave up five or more goals.
-Ondrej Palat and Victor Hedman each missed their second consecutive game due to injury.
-In the second period, Kucherov took a shot off his knee and dropped to the ice in obvious pain. He skated off under his own power, remained on the bench for a few minutes, and then went to the locker room. However, he returned to the game in the third period.
-Tonight’s game marked the sixth straight contest in which the Lightning have scored a power play goal. The last time they came up empty with the man-advantage was October 18th, when they went 0-for-4 against Detroit.
-Alex Killorn played in his 445th career game, passing Freddy Modin for 11th place on the Lightning’s all-time list.
Three Stars of the Game
1st Star: Brayden Point – Finished with four assists and five points, both career-bests in those categories.
2nd Star: Braydon Coburn – Recorded only the second multi-goal game of his career and first in almost a decade.
3rd Star: Nikita Kucherov – Ended the evening with two goals and one assist.
