By Michael Wax
The Lightning had a huge start to the road trip, potting three goals in the first five minutes and rolling to a 5-2 win.
Here are three things we saw from the win:
Fast Start
Facing a Colorado squad that was ravaged by a multitude of injuries, the Lightning needed to get off to a fast start. The good news is that it didn’t take long.
A minute into the game, Brayden Point took the puck for a skate around the Colorado net. As he made his way around, he diverted attention onto him and off the 2024 Art Ross Trophy winner, Nikita Kucherov, who settled into the middle of the ice between the circles. Point found Kucherov, and he wired a one-timer to the back of the net to give the Lightning an early lead.
A little more than two minutes, the Lightning struck again. Kucherov took the puck into the zone, shielded off the Colorado defender, and made his way behind the net. In the snap of his fingers, he shoveled the past the other way to a wide open Jake Guentzel, who shoveled it home to double the lead. No one knew the pass was coming, and looked the most surprised, but the Lightning’s hottest off-season acquisition, added to his total yet again:
Since the first line did the bulk of the heavy lifting for the first two goals, the second line decided to add in on the fun to get the Lightning a three goal lead. In a three-on-two rush into the offensive zone, the trio of Hagel, Cirelli, and Geekie put together four crisp passes to get the rookie a tap in goal for his second career NHL tally.
It was imperative for the Lightning to get off to a good start, not only against this opponent, but for the start of the road trip. The Bolts were able to do that in spades, and it helped them control the rest of the game.
PK, Have It Your Way
On first glance, going three for four on the penalty kill might not look all that glamorous. But when you consider how good the Avalanche’s top power plate unit is, even with all of their injuries, the Bolts did exactly what they needed to do to limit the Avs in this game.
After allowing a power play goal in the first to Ivan Ivan, the Lightning were able to shut it down with three big penalty kills in the second period, especially when the game was at a two-goal difference.
A special shout out goes to J.J. Moser, who saw an increase in penalty kill time thanks to penalties to both Lilleberg and Cernak. Moser did everything he could to lay his body on the line, with a few blocks and always putting his stick in the right positions.
Steady Cat
Since losing three straight two weeks ago, which included getting pulled in the Toronto, Andrei Vasilevskiy has been spectacular. For the third consecutive game, he finished with more than 30 saves and less than three goals allowed, stopping 33 shots in this one.
While he wasn’t necessarily tested early, as the lightning did a good job of getting ahead as we previously mentioned, he was relied upon often as the game progressed. Vasilevskiy made a spectacular save on MacKinnon and Rantanen in the second, continuing his brilliance throughout the frame as the Lightning fought off penalty kill after penalty kill.
The third period was much of the same from a 5-on-5 standpoint, as the Lightning were consistently getting hemmed in their own zone. While Vasilevskiy did allow one of the 13 shots to beat him, he once again remained strong in a period where the Lightning were out shot 13-2.
On the surface, Vasilevskiy has been as inconsistent as he was last year. But when you take a deeper dive into his season, aside from the Toronto game, he has been a very solid and calm goaltender throughout the season. It’s been a very different approach than the Vasilevskiy that we saw last year, trying to come back from injury, and it’s worked in his favor.
Comments