They weren’t the booms or craters caused by cannons that once protected pirate ships of ancient lore, but goal horns were aplenty on Saturday as the Tampa Bay Lightning celebrated Gasparilla Night with a 5-1 victory over the Detroit Red Wings.
Tampa Bay scored three goals in the first 3 minutes, 58 seconds of the second period to open a four-goal advantage on their Atlantic Division opponent, a turn that led to a home victory at AMALIE Arena.
The Lightning are now 25-16-3 this season.
"A couple penalties hurt us, and so we tried to address the penalty issue. Didn't quite work out that way, but I thought the way we came out in that second period, I mean, it's a 1-0 game, and all of a sudden it's a 4-0 game in the first four minutes,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “So that was clearly a turning point in this game.”
Forward Nikita Kucherov was integral in Saturday’s performance, posting a goal and two assists to co-lead the Lightning in scoring.
Kucherov’s second assist of the night was the 600th of his NHL career, joining teammate Victor Hedman—who reached 600 assists in Thursday’s win—as the only players in franchise history to hit the mark.
“Extremely proud. Obviously one of the greatest that’s played on this team, and I hope it’s 600 and counting,” Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy said of Kucherov. “Just again, an exceptional player and a big reason that we’re having success the last few years. Can’t say enough.”
Brayden Point started the raiding of the figurative Detroit ship on Gasparilla Night. Point found the puck at the left goalpost after it had bounced off the back wall on an Emil Lilleberg point rip, burying it for the 1-0 lead 2:02 into the game.
Vasilevskiy repeatedly shut down Detroit chances to help Tampa Bay maintain its 1-0 lead through 20 minutes. The second period also started fast for the Lightning, whose three goals in 3:58 were the fourth-fastest trio of goals to open any period in franchise history.
Forward Jake Guentzel made it 2-0 Tampa Bay 16 seconds into the second period with a power-play goal before Kucherov again displayed his puck skills on the 3-0 goal 1:50 into the middle frame.
Kucherov danced his way to the right faceoff dot, pulling a Detroit defender toward him before cutting back to the right center hashmark. Kucherov shelved his shot into the top right corner of the Detroit net for his 21stgoal of the season.
Lightning defenseman Darren Raddysh didn’t see Kucherov’s move until the replay showed on the big screen in the rink, but he said the goal was just as impressive on the replay.
"The replay was pretty sick, and I'm pretty sure everyone jumped up,” Raddysh said. "And to see him that excited for a goal is pretty cool.”
Mitchell Chaffee expanded the lead further, scoring in front of the net 3:58 into the second period after Luke Glendening and Cam Atkinson combined to force a turnover behind the goal line.
Detroit’s lone score came off the stick of forward Lucas Raymond the power play with 5:48 left in period two
Raddysh’s second goal of the season came from the top of the new look power-play setup, advancing the home team’s lead to 5-1 less than a minute after the Raymond goal.
Kucherov’s primary assist on the play was his 600th NHL assist.
“There's not enough time to talk about what Kuch has meant to this organization, to this league, quite frankly,” Cooper said. “He's a generational player, and hopefully we'll get to see hundreds of more of those in the future.”
Vasilevskiy finished with 39 saves for the Lightning to earn his 20th win of the season, one that improved the team to 3-6-0 in Atlantic Division play.
Vasilevskiy is now 20-13-2 with a .916 save percentage in 35 starts. After his milestone night, Kucherov credited his goalie for Saturday’s victory.
He wasn't surprised by Vasilevskiy's big game.
"Well, he's been consistent the whole year. Nothing impressed me. He's been our best player, so we gotta play better in front of him."
The Lightning visit division leader Toronto (29-16-2) for a 7:30 p.m. game on Monday.
Benjamin’s Three Stars:
- Nikita Kucherov, TBL (Goal, two assists)
- Andrei Vasilevskiy, TBL (39 saves, win)
- Jake Guentzel, TBL (Goal, two assists)
