Ex-Bolt Khabibulin Shines as Oilers Beat Lightning

It was a strange game in Edmonton Friday night, as the Oilers and Tampa Bay Lightning would exchange huge shifts in momentum, an old face would come back to haunt the Bolts, and a Swedish youngster would sink the kill-shot in grand fashion.

Early in the first period, the Adam Hall–Dominic Moore–Sean Bergenheim line had a great shift and put a heavy amount of pressure on the Oilers net.

The puck came back to the left point, where Randy Jones launched a slap shot.  It deflected off of one of the Edmonton defenders and past ex-Bolts’ goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin to give Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead. It was Jones’ first goal of the season and his first in a Lightning uniform.

Five and a half minutes later, Dustin Penner skated over the Lightning blue line and left a drop pass for the trailing Magnus Paajarvi.  Paajarvi used the Tampa defender as a screen and launched a shot that may have surprised netminder Dan Ellis.  The shot beat Ellis high to the glove side to tie the game at 1-1.

Late in the opening period with the Bolts on a power play, Teddy Purcell got a good shot on Khabibulin, who kicked the shot away.  Ryan Malone was first to get to the rebound in the slot, and he ripped a shot into the vacated left side before Khabibulin could recover for his ninth goal of the season to give the Bolts a 2-1 lead after one period.

The goal came with one second left on the man advantage.  It was also Malone’s third straight game with a goal and sixth consecutive contest with a point.

In the second period with the clubs skating four-on-four, Tampa would be guilty of some bad decisions which would lead to numerous Edmonton odd-man rushes.

On the second two-on-one that rookie Taylor Hall led into the Lightning zone, the Oilers would tie the game.  Just as the minor to Jean-Francois Jacques expired to give Edmonton a power play, Hall tried a wraparound in which Ellis made a diving stick save.  But the puck bounced off of defenseman Victor Hedman’s skate and high into the net.

The play was originally ruled no goal, but after a video review it was clear that the puck hit the top of the netting and the water bottle.  It was a new game at 2-2.

Midway through the middle frame, Tampa Bay defenseman Mike Lundin took a slap shot from the point in which Khabibulin made the save.  Steven Stamkos gathered the rebound at the edge of the right faceoff circle and shot the puck past the Edmonton goalie, but the shot hit the far post behind Khabibulin and went wide.