Despite not playing as sharply as in recent weeks, the Tampa Bay Lightning grabbed their fourth straight win on home ice Thursday night. They took down the rejuvenated St. Louis Blues by a score of 3-1, who are under new head coach Jim Montgomery. The Lightning and Blues split the season series at one game apiece, as St. Louis won the first matchup 3-2 on Nov. 5.
Lightning Extend Win Streak to 4 Games
Anthony Cirelli (13) opened the scoring in this game on a nicely executed rush play set up by Lightning rookie Conor Geekie. He sent a cross-ice seam pass to the goalscorer Cirelli, who roofed a backhand top shelf over Jordan Binnington. The game remained 1-0 for the rest of the first frame.
The Lightning extended their lead to two with more beautiful cross-ice seam passes off the rush. Superstars Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov zipped passes through the offensive zone to find defenseman Nick Perbix (4) in close quarters 3:42 into the second period. However, St. Louis shifted the momentum quickly with a few dominant shifts. That’s when Robert Thomas found Pavel Buchnevich (9) at the back door to cut the Lightning’s lead in half. Buchnevich has been red-hot since the Blues made a coaching change, and newly acquired veteran Cam Fowler picked up his first point in a St. Louis uniform on the goal.
Luckily, Tampa Bay had a quick answer for the game’s momentum shift. Kucherov kicked the puck out to rookie Gage Goncalves (1), who sniped the top right corner for his first NHL goal just over a minute after the Buchnevich goal. After allowing three goals on 10 shots, the Blues made a goaltending change, putting Joel Hofer between the pipes.
The second period concluded with Emil Lilleberg and Blue’s captain Brayden Schenn dropping the mitts following a collision along the boards in the neutral zone.
The third-period action was tight-checking hockey. The Blues dominated most of the period, utilizing their high-flying speed and skill to sustain puck pressure. Yet, the Lightning’s defense and goaltending came up big to hold off the Blues’ late third-period push. While this game wasn’t Tampa Bay’s prettiest performance of the season, they set a season-best four-game win streak.
The Lightning have back-to-back matchups with the defending Stanley Cup champions, Florida Panthers, on Sunday and Monday at 5 p.m. and 7 p.m, respectively. Meanwhile, the Blues will travel to Fort Lauderdale to face the Panthers on Friday night. Puck drop for that contest is at 7 p.m.
3 Stars of the Game
- Andrei Vasilevskiy (.969 Sv%, 1.00 GAA)
- Gage Goncalves (1 goal)
- Nikita Kucherov (2 assists)
