TAMPA — The Lightning finally fought back.
Bullied from the start by the defending Stanley Cup champion Golden Knights on Thursday night at Amalie Arena, Tampa Bay rallied to claim a 5-4 victory, inspired by Brandon Hagel’s second-period battle.
The Lightning (16-13-5) scored four goals in the second period, including two from Braden Point, taking a two-point lead and winning for the second straight time. The Golden Knights (tied for the NHL lead in scoring) tied the game in the third inning, but Nick Paul clinched the victory with a rebound off a corner kick at 1:13.
Alex Barre-Boulet and Nikita Kucherov also scored for the Lightning. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 30 saves.
“This is a good score for us,” Paul said. “Coming into the game, it was a pretty big game. It looked like it was going to be fun. It was physical, it was hard, but it was fun for the crowd. But it was a lot of resilience on our part. I think it was, because there were a lot of things that we could have just given up on and started kind of taking responsibility and blaming.
“We didn’t do that. We took responsibility, leveled up our game and won the battle. … It was a great win for the goaltender all the way.”
Here are three takeaways from this victory.
spark
In the second period, Ivan Barbashev checked Anthony Cirelli and lightning struck. So much so that Hegel pursued him.
“I saw him hit Tony,” Hagel said. “And obviously Tony is a key, important guy for our team and I thought (Barbashev) was his size. So I thought that was my job and I told him to (fight). ) and, oh, it happened.”
Hagel threw his arms in the air twice to rouse the home crowd as he skated away. The fans responded and Lightning shifted into a higher gear.
“I think it just brought energy to the building,” Point said. “The crowd was lively and that gave us energy. We were also throwing haymakers. That was really great. And the crowd was really loud. And I think that really helped us, and, you know, there was really good energy after that. I was able to get it.”
Hagel received an additional two-minute penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct for starting the game, so the Lightning had to kill the penalty while trailing 2-1.
It didn’t matter. Tampa Bay was stirring Hagel’s emotions.
“They went into (Game 34) going into a playoff atmosphere,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “And when you look at our team, you want your players to show some emotion. And the Hags definitely brought the team to the fight (Thursday).”
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point
He scored two points in the second period with a hard-fought goal 2:22 apart. With 3:32 left in the period, he chased down a rebound and sent the puck into the net. He jumped on the rebound again and tucked it in with 1:10 left.
Point’s 499th and 500th career points were part of his ninth multi-point game of the season.
“It’s really amazing,” Point said. “It’s not as many milestones as we’ve seen in the past, but it’s pretty awesome. The team has obviously been great since I’ve been here. So, it’s been really fun.”
error
Kucherov, who scored a power-play goal at 15:55 of the second period to bring the score to two, opened the door for the Knights to tie things up in the third period. Kucherov, angry that he missed several calls, was jaw-dropping on the bench when he was penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct.
Jonathan Marchessault scored on the ensuing power play, and Paul Cotter tied it at four just over four minutes later.
Mr. Cooper said Mr. Kucherov’s complaint was not far-fetched.
“When the referee called the penalty, I was standing right next to him. I said that was an unbecoming call for a referee,” the coach said. “99.9% of the time they’re not going to make it. For some reason (Thursday) it just struck a chord and that was it.
“So, I didn’t put anything on Cucchi. I mean, there were literally like four words said, none of which were profanity, probably 1,000 times in the game. Those were the kind of words you would say.”
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