Ben Bishop Backstops The Tampa Bay Lightning To Victory

The Tampa Bay Lightning continue to rock their West Coast road trip as Ben Bishop notches his 30th win of the season with a 4-2 victory over the Arizona Coyotes.

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Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender certainly took advantage of the Arizona Coyotes recent struggles as they charged into what used to be known as the Jobing.com Arena (now renamed the Gila River Arena) and delivered a swift 4-2 defeat to the Coyotes.

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This allowed Lightning netminder Ben Bishop to backstop the Bolts to his 30^th win of the season.

Bishop had a little bit more of a relaxing night than he has become accustomed to, only seeing 24 shots from the Coyotes. Allowing only two goals in sixty minutes of hockey, Bishop ended the night with a Save Percentage of .917.

In the beginning of the game, things didn’t look too bright for the Lightning. They were spending a lot of time in the defensive zone and really making Bishop work for his win. Unfortunately, it was only a matter of time before the Coyotes were able to capitalize on the situation and strike first blood.

The first strike would come at 14:02 in the first when Coyotes defenseman Mike Stone was able to take a shot at the net – which was ultimately deflected – but after a little back and forth he would get a second opportunity which you in fact find its way through the pipes and into the back of the net.

In a surprising turn of events, the Lightning Power Play seemed to spring to life tonight, scoring two goals during the encounter with the man advantage. The first to capitalize on their opportunity was Lightning left wing Ondrej Palat. Palat’s opportunity would come at around 6:45 in the period.

Defenseman Anton Stralman accepted a pass from Bishop in the Lightning’s zone sending it through to the neutral zone and into the neutral zone where it would end up on the stick of Lightning right wing Ryan Callahan.

Callahan spins around and sends the puck over to Palat who rushes the net and completely catches former Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Mike Smith by total surprise.

Speaking of Ryan Callahan, he would be the next Bolt to strike. Mark Barberio and Callahan made a pretty sweet play bringing the puck behind the net and around to Smith’s stick side and right into the back of the net.

The third period of play would be a little more back and forth between the two teams. The Lightning’s third goal of the night, which ended up being the game winner when the final buzzer sounded, would come at the hands of Ondrej Palat.

The Coyotes would clear the puck out of their zone and into the neutral zone where it would find the stick of Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman. Hedman sent the puck in the general direction of Ondrej Palat, and the rest was as you would say history.

Just past the halfway point in the third period, the Coyotes would find a spark of hope with a goal from Coyotes center Mark Arcobello. The long and the short of the story is that Lightning captain Steven Stamkos got had by Arcobello at the blue line and he simply broke away and beat Bishop fair and square.

There are many who could argue that Arcobello should have been called for Tripping Stamkos, or at the very least Interference, but unfortunately all we can do is chalk this one up to another “could’ve, should’ve, would’ve” moment of the season at the hands of the referees.

On the flip side, Arcobello did beat Bishop fair and square so all in all this ends up being a moot point.

There were just five seconds left in the game when the Lightning’s Power Play would score the final goal of the night. Well, we should say that Steven Stamkos was able to bring the puck down the ice and fire a puck into the empty net. While scoring on the empty net is not exactly the most difficult thing in the world, it is nice to see the Lightning’s Power Play unit actually scoring some goals.

Your Three Stars of the Game:

1. Ondrej Palat

2. Ryan Callahan

3. Mark Arcobello

Unfortunately, the Lightning don’t exactly have a lot of time to sit back and celebrate their win. The Tampa Bay Lightning will be headed to the Pepsi Center tomorrow night to go head-to-head with captain Gabriel Landeskog and the Colorado Avalanche.

Colorado has brought home the two points in three of their last five encounters and have plenty of players capable of finding the back of the net. We are fairly positive that the Lightning is in for a pretty intense game tomorrow night, but if the Bolts continue to play as they did tonight, there is no doubt that they can finish off this road trip on a high note.

What did you think of tonight’s encounter? Who do you think shined the brightest in the Lightning’s 4-2 victory? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Next: Did the Tampa Bay Lightning Give Evgeni Nabokov a Fair Shot?

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