Power-play goals, breakaway goals, milestone goals, lead-changing goals and the game winner.
Offense was everywhere in Thursday’s NHL matchup at Nationwide Arena in Ohio between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Columbus Blue Jackets.
The 13th and final goal of the night came off the stick of Columbus defenseman Zach Werenski, whose shot 1:26 into overtime defeated the Lightning 7-6 to hand Tampa Bay its first loss in four games.
Werenski’s goal completed a game in which the Blue Jackets trailed 3-0 in the first period.
Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said his team played in “quicksand” on Thursday, adding the Lightning gave up too many rushes.
“Our mind wasn’t in it today for whatever reason. Give a ton of credit to Columbus. They didn't care they were down 3-0,” Cooper said. “They were like, ‘This is a 60-minute game. We'll see what we can do to win this.’ Clearly, we didn't have that same mindset, and in the end, probably the right team won tonight”
Thursday started the right way for the Lightning, which held a 3-0 lead just past the midway point of the first period. Brayden Point’s 11th goal of the year came 1:51 into the game on the power play with help from a Nikita Kucherov assist—the 900th point of Kucherov’s career—before Brandon Hagel made it 2-0 3:58 into the game.
Forward Cam Atkinson scored his first goal as a member of the Bolts, deflecting a Victor Hedman point shot past Columbus goalie Elvis Merzlikins 11:52 into the second period to make it 3-0.
Sean Monahan got the Blue Jackets on the scoreboard with 6:25 left in the first.
The teams combined to score six times in the opening 5:50 of the second period, the fastest six goals by two teams since a Feb. 19 game between Minnesota and Vancouver last year (5:45).
A breakaway goal by Dmitri Voronkov 28 seconds into the second period made it a one-goal game before Kent Johnson tied it 3-3 with a power-play goal at the 1:55 mark.
“We had a great start and then I don’t know how to digest this game,” Lightning captain Victor Hedman said. “We’ve just got to take the night and refocus and watch the tape. It was a lot of chances both ways, and that is not how we want to play our hockey games. Credit to them, they came back hard after we scored the first three, but we gotta be better than that.”
Mitchell Chaffee scored his fifth goal of the year—a new career high—16 seconds after Johnson’s goal for a 4-3 Lightning lead, but the Blue Jackets got back-to-back tallies from Werenski at 3:42 and Yegor Chinakhov at 5:26 for their first lead of the game.
Bolts forward Anthony Cirelli tied the game at five goals a side 6:18 into the second period when he finished off a 3-on-1 with Hagel and Kucherov. The assist was Kucherov’s third of the night, while the goal was the final of the period.
After Johnson’s power-play goal—his second goal of the night—gave the home team the lead midway through the third, a pair of Lightning youngsters combined less than a minute later to draw the Bolts even yet again.
Gage Goncalves earned his first NHL assist with a shot pass to Conor Geekie, who redirected the puck into the net 44 seconds after Johnson’s goal. Combined with an assist on Chaffee’s goal, Thursday marked Geekie’s first multipoint game in the NHL.
Werenski ended the game in overtime to cap a five-point night, sending a snap shot into the top left corner of the net.
Goalie Jonas Johansson finished with 36 saves and is now 1-1-1 on the year.
Despite Thursday’s loss, the Lightning have earned standings points in each of their past five games (3-0-2). They return home to face the Dallas Stars on Saturday and prepare for a Stars team that is 12-6-0 this season.
The Bolts know they must be better defensively in that effort.
“We talked about it was 5-5 going into the third and clearly wasn’t our best and (we) still had an opportunity to win the game and found a way to get a point,” Atkinson said of Thursday. “One point’s better than nothing, but that’s not the way we know we’re capable of playing.”
Benjamin’s Three Stars:
- Zach Werenski, CBJ (2 goals, 3 assists, OT winner)
- Sean Monahan, CBJ (1 goal, 3 assists)
- Nikita Kucherov, TBL (3 assists, 900th NHL point)
