The Lightning may not have been at their best in this game, but they still grinded out a win.
For much of the night, the Lightning struggled with their puck play. They weren’t executing crisply, and that slowed down their attack. They also had problems defending the rush, which was an issue when they faced the Flyers last week in Philadelphia. The Flyers generated a handful of odd-man rushes but failed to convert on any of them. Either Andrei Vasilevskiy made a save, a shot missed the net, a pass was mishandled, or a Lightning defender disrupted the play. Vasilevskiy's toughest save during five-on-five action came early in the second period when he made a breakaway stop on Owen Tippett.
The Flyers received five power plays. They were most dangerous during the first of those opportunities. They posted five shots on goal during that man advantage, which began at 9:46 of the first period. Vasilevskiy denied Grade-A looks from Matvei Michkov and Tyson Foerster — along with his aforementioned breakaway stop on Tippett, those were two of his best saves of the night.
The second period featured three more power-play chances for the Flyers. But they weren’t able to register a single shot during those six minutes of power-play time. Two of the power plays came during a four-minute sequence following Emil Lilleberg’s high-sticking double-minor. The Lightning’s outstanding work on the penalty kill in the second period was a key to their victory.
The Lightning took the lead late in the first period when Travis Konecky fumbled the puck inside the offensive blue line, and Nikita Kucherov countered on a breakaway. Kucherov snapped the puck into the top of the net at 18:31. Thanks to Vasilevskiy and their strong penalty killing in the second period, the Lightning maintained the 1-0 lead after 40 minutes.
The third period was the Lightning’s cleanest. They managed the puck better and created some good scoring looks. Ivan Fedotov’s save on Brandon Hagel’s breakaway early in the third kept the deficit at one. The Flyers' best chance to tie the game occurred late in the third when they got one final odd-man rush. But Konecny’s left-circle shot on the two-on-one missed the net.
Soon after the Flyers pulled Fedotov for an extra attacker, Sean Couturier was whistled for a high-sticking double-minor at 18:13. While on the kill, the Flyers tried to go on the attack as they swapped Fedotov for a fifth skater. But the Lightning retrieved the puck inside their own blue line and countered. Jake Guentzel scored into the empty net at 18:30. Since it was a double minor on Couturier, the Lightning stayed on the power play for the remainder of the game.
Even though the Lightning had some rough patches in the game, they held the Flyers to just 21 shots and 49 attempts. Those low numbers speak to how hard the Lightning worked defensively when they didn’t have the puck.
This was the Lightning’s lone home contest during a seven-game stretch. They begin another three-game trip on Thursday in Dallas.
Lightning Radio Three Stars of the Game (as selected by Phil Esposito):
- Andrei Vasilevskiy — Lightning. 21-save shutout.
- Ivan Fedotov — Flyers. 22 saves.
- Yanni Gourde — Lightning.
