Tampa Bay Lightning Edge Out Anaheim Ducks To Kick Off Road Trip
The Tampa Bay Lightning kicked off their three-game road trip through the Western Conference with a 2-1 win over the Anaheim Ducks.
The Tampa Bay Lightning came into tonight’s encounter in desperate need of a win. Unfortunately, as of late the Lightning’s offense and special teams have not exactly been working like the well-oiled machines we have come to expect from the Bolts. Thankfully, the Tampa Bay Lightning were able to work together and pull out a 2-1 win against the Anaheim Ducks and start this road trip on a high note.
The Lightning would put a fair amount of pressure on the Anaheim Ducks to kick things off, but for some reason they were still unable to get the puck past Ducks netminder John Gibson. This is especially disheartening to Tampa Bay Lightning fans as the Bolts had three opportunities with the man advantage in the first period.
We have seen flashes this season where the Lightning’s Power Play and Penalty Kill units have been on point, but they have struggled to find any sort of consistency. If the team continues on this path, they are going to be hard pressed to find themselves in a position to play in the postseason when the time arises.
When the buzzer would sound to end the first period of play, the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Anaheim Ducks would remain scoreless. Thankfully for the Tampa Bay Lightning, this is where things were about to change.
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Just over two minutes into the second period Jonathan Drouin, who made his return to the Tampa Bay Lightning lineup tonight, who would break the ice and open up the scoring for the Bolts. It all started when Vladislav Namestnikov played the puck through the neutral zone and into the Ducks zone.
The puck would change hands a few times before bouncing off the boards and onto the stick of Lightning right wing Nikita Kucherov. Kucherov taps it free as Namestnikov directs the puck back to an awaiting Jonathan Drouin who fires off the shot that finally makes it past Gibson and into the back of the net.
As you can imagine, the Anaheim Ducks were not amused by the Tampa Bay Lightning’s opening goal. It didn’t take the Ducks very long to come flying into the Lightning zone and put some pretty intense pressure on Lightning goaltender Ben Bishop.
Ducks center Rickard Rakell would play the puck behind the net and bring it out to center where Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry were ready and waiting. Getzlaf would be the first to get his stick on the puck, but Bishop was able to deflect the initial onslaught. Unfortunately, the next shot from Corey Perry would find its way into the back of the net, much to the displeasure of Bishop.
As the minutes ticked off the clock, the Tampa Bay Lightning were still unable to answer the goal made by Perry. Then…it happened. At 14:47 in the second period, Ducks defenseman Clayton Stoner would find himself with a one-way ticket to the sin bin for Cross Checking Jonathan Marchessault. When Marchessault finally made it to his feet he seemed to be in quite a bit of distress. Thankfully for the Lightning, it was nothing too serious.
It would be Jonathan Drouin, who had already scored one goal tonight, who would play the puck into the zone. After being quickly covered by the Ducks, Drouin would hand the puck off to Valtteri Filppula. As Filppula controlled the puck, Drouin made his way to the back of the net. Filppula would hand the puck off to Drouin behind the net, who would in turn pass it around front to Jonathan Marchessault who would capitalize on the Power Play and sink the puck into the back of the net for his second goal of the season.
We must say, Marchessault has a pretty sweet goal celebration. If you’ve ever been a fan of World Wrestling Entertainment’s developmental program WWE NXT, you’ll notice Marchessault gives off a very Tyler Breeze kind of vibe. Of course, when you’ve got skills like that, you have no other choice but to flaunt them.
Despite a flurry of offense in the third period by the Anaheim Ducks, the Tampa Bay Lightning were able to hold strong and maintain their lead to defeat the Ducks 2-1 and kick off their Western Conference road trip on a high note. This means the Lightning has defeated the Ducks in both games they’ve played against each other this season, outscoring the Ducks 7-1.
There are still some things the Tampa Bay Lightning need to work on if they are going to keep momentum on their side throughout the course of the road trip. One of those things is puck possession. The Lightning need to be mindful of where they are on the ice and who they are going to pass the puck to.
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Also, while the Tampa Bay Lightning did capitalize on one of their four Power Play opportunities tonight, the Bolts need to dig a little deeper and start applying more pressure on the opposing goaltenders with the man advantage.
On the bright side, Ben Bishop played one hell of a game against the once mighty Ducks. Bishop faced 25 shots and only allowed one of them to make their way to the back of the net. This means Bishop walked out of Anaheim with a Save Percentage of .970.
Next up, the Tampa Bay Lightning will take on the San Jose Sharks on Saturday night at the SAP Center in Anaheim. The puck is scheduled to drop at 10:30 p.m. EST. Make sure to stay connected right here to Bolts By The Bay as we bring you all the latest Tampa Bay Lightning, news, updates, commentary, and more.