Fans were ready for a wild night at Amalie Arena as the Bolts returned home from a rather rough road trip. Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy started off the season strong but has struggled in his last two starts. On Saturday, in Ottawa, Vasilevskiy allowed five goals in the game. Then, in a rarity, in Toronto on Monday night, Coach Jon Cooper actually pulled Vasilevskiy in the second period in favor of backup goalie Jonas Johansson after Vasilevskiy let in another five goals. Vasilevskiy looked to get back into form tonight as he and his Lightning teammates took on the red-hot Minnesota Wild.
A Wild Start
The Bolts seemed happy to be home and had a jump in their step early. It took almost six and a half minutes for the Wild to get their first shot, but they made it count as Kirill Kaprizov scored his third of the season. It was the fifth straight game where the Bolts surrendered the opening goal. The Lightning challenged the goal for a possible offside entry into their zone. After video review, the Wild had themselves a good goal and a 1-0 lead and the Bolts had themselves a penalty.
The Lightning did kill off the penalty and even had a good shorthanded chance of their own. They pressed hard for the rest of the period but could not solve Marc-Andre Fleury. First period ended with the Bolts up on the shot clock 12-5 but down 1-0 where it counted.
Wild Night For the Special Teams
The Lightning’s power play had been struggling for a few games but seemed to be showing some signs of coming around of late. It took until almost midway through this game for the power play to get an opportunity tonight. And it did not look good. They could barely enter the offensive zone. The Wild had a good shorthanded chance when Jakub Lauko beat Victor Hedman to a puck in the Lightning zone. Hedman caught up to him and Lauko never really got a good shot off. But Hedman did get a holding penalty.
After about half a minute of four on four, the Bolts’ penalty killers got back to work. Their penalty kill has struggled this season as they have given up power play goals in every game thus far. They came into tonight ranked 29th in the league in this area. They did score a shorthanded goal last game in New Jersey on a fluky shot off the faceoff. Tonight’s shorthanded goal was much prettier as the red-hot Brandon Hagel took a pass from Anthony Cirelli and rifled it past Marc-Andre Fleury to tie the game.
🚨”BRANDON HAGEL! SHORTHANDED GOAL!!!” 🚨
Hagel gets the scoring started for the Bolts in the second period!#TBLvsMIN
🎧: https://t.co/S6Y9TymMk9
📻: @1025TheBone pic.twitter.com/T90BAyxf22— Lightning Audio Network (@BoltsRadio) October 25, 2024
Hagel was starting to get close to Kucherov for the team lead in goals. So, Kucherov figured he’d score another one to bring his season total up to eight. Nick Paul found Kucherov open and Kucherov is having no trouble finding the back of the net this season.
That’s that beautiful Bolts hockey!#SmoothAs | @tullamoredew pic.twitter.com/wH4RyA94tX
— Lightning on FanDuel Sports Network (@FDSN_Lightning) October 25, 2024
As time was winding down in the period, the Wild tied the score at 2-2 on Joel Eriksson Ek’s third goal of the season.
How Will This Wild Night End?
Tie game going into the third period. Which team would emerge victorious? The Wild wasted little time settling that question. Just 33 seconds in, Nick Paul was called for a high stick. The Bolts’ penalty kill had looked good so far tonight, but this one did not take long. Matt Boldy scored his fourth of the season at the 54 second mark and the Wild were back in the lead.
The Lightning did apply decent pressure for the remainder of the period but could not find the back of the net. With the Lightning net empty for the extra attacker, Kirill Kaprizov finished this one off with an empty net goal and that was that.
The Wild beat the Bolts 4-2 and the Lightning’s record drops to 4-3.
Three Stars
1- Kirill Kaprizov- 2 goals, 1 assist
2- Matt Boldy- Game winning goal, 1 assist
3- Brandon Hagel- continued his torrid pace with a shorthanded goal.
Up Next
Another red-hot team heads into town Saturday as the 5-1-0 Washington Capitals face off against the Lightning. Puck drop is scheduled for 7pm.
