Tampa Bay Lightning Recap: Lightning Tame The Minnesota Wild, Despite Injuries
Despite losing three centermen in the process, the Tampa Bay Lightning still managed to tame the Minnesota Wild Thursday night at the Amalie Arena in Tampa.
You can take our players, but there’s no way you’re taking away our points. This seemed to be the motto of the night on Thursday as the Tampa Bay Lightning took the ice to battle the Number One team in the Western Conference, the Minnesota Wild.
Over the course of what would turn out to be an exciting, yet stressful, night of hockey here in the Bolts Nation, the Lightning would lose not one, not two, but three centers. That’s right; ladies and gentlemen…three centers, three left leg injuries, and as you could imagine, no call on the ice.
First, it was Vladislav Namestnikov who went down after having his knee taken out from under him by Wild forward Zach Parise. Just moments later, Tyler Johnson would head down the tunnel after a vicious, and wildly unnecessary, knee-on-knee hit from Wild forward Nino Niederreiter.
Tampa Bay Lightning
Just when the Bolts thought they had escaped the injury bug, he decided to strike once more. This time, it would be Lightning forward Cedric Paquette who would leave the game with a leg injury after a nasty looking fall with (who else) Niederreiter.
Despite the tremendous adversity the Lightning faced, in addition to that of facing the number one team in the Western Conference, the Bolts did an incredibly good job of keeping their cool and holding on to one of the most important things at this point in the season…their two points.
The Lightning kicked things off early in the first period with a goal from Nikita Kucherov. The 23-year-old Russian sniper has been on a heck of a run lately, and has definitely proven to be one of the most dangerous assets in the Lightning’s arsenal.
In the last 10 games, Kucherov has managed to bring home nine goals and eight assists for a total of 17 points. Surprisingly enough, Kucherov’ goal in the first period wouldn’t be the only accomplishment he would achieve tonight. We’ll get back to this in a few moments.
A little under four minutes later, the Lightning would strike again. This time, it would be Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman who would put the puck in the back of the net. This would give Hedman his 13th goal of the season. These numbers would help Hedman solidify his second place position on the team in overall points.
When the buzzer sounded to end the first period of play, the Lightning would lead the Wild 2-0. The funny thing is, if you were looking solely at the stat sheet, you would be sure it was the other way around. The Wild outshot the Lightning 9-7 and dominated the Lightning in the faceoff circle 56-44.
While the Tampa Bay Lightning would continue to add to the scoresheet in the second period, this is where things would start to take a turn for the worse. It was just three minutes and nine seconds into the period before the injuries would start. Thankfully, the Lightning’s on-ice presence didn’t diminish in the face of adversity.
Nikita Kucherov would attempt to take the puck to the net in the offensive zone. Unfortunately, Wild forward Ryan Suter was in hot pursuit. After determining he had no chance in making the shot, he decided to drop the pass back to defenseman Andrej Sustr.
The six-foot-seven-inch tall Czech defenseman wasted no time in pulling back his stick and putting the puck on the net. One lucky bounce later and the puck sailed past Wild goaltender Devan Dubnyk and into the back of the net to give the Lightning a 3-0 lead over the Wild. This was Sustr’s second goal of the season.
More From Bolts By The Bay: Vladislav Namestnikov Leaves Game With Injury (Video)
It wasn’t long after the Sustr goal when the Lightning would suffer their second injury of the night. As we mentioned before, this is when Tyler Johnson would have his knee blatantly taken out by Wild forward Nino Niederreiter. It seems as if Niederreiter has a penchant for injuring Lightning players as it was he who injured Johnson’s linemate Ondrej Palat early last season.
When the buzzer sounded to end the second period of play, the Lightning would hold a 3-0 lead over the Minnesota Wild. Unlike the first 20 minutes of play, the Lightning had a decided edge in the second period. The Bolts would outshoot the Wild 13-6 in the second for a two-period total of 20-15 in favor of the Lightning.
There would be a lot of back and forth between the Lightning and the Wild in the third period. Unfortunately, as the time continued to tick off the clock, the Wild would continue to make an attempt to rally and get back in the game. Just when you thought things couldn’t get any more complex for the Bolts, well…
After having his stick slashed out of his hand by Wild alternate captain Ryan Suter, to no call may we add, Paquette did everything he could to remain effective on the ice. This involved him getting tangled up with Nino Niederreiter.
While attempting to break up a play in front of the net, Paquette would fall to the ice with Niederreiter in tow. Unfortunately, with his leg caught underneath him in a painful looking position, Paquette found himself in a tremendous amount of difficulty. As we mentioned before, this marked the third (and thankfully final) injury to a Lightning center.
Lightning Injury Report: Tyler Johnson Has His Knee Taken Out (Video)
It was only a matter of moments before the Wild would make a rather hard push to get a goal on the board. Funny enough, we are being quite literal here. The Wild would light the lamp moments later, but only after Andrei Vasilevskiy was pushed into the net.
Surprisingly enough, the referees ruled in favor of the Lightning and declared it a no-goal. Even more surprisingly, the Wild Head Coach Bruce Boudreau would elect to challenge the call on the ice. This seemed like a rather silly move considering the push was rather obvious; however, it is what it is.
What came as no surprise at all was the verdict on the challenge. After conferring with the War Room in Toronto, the referee would proclaim the call on the ice would stand and the Wild would have to try again if they wanted to get a notch on the scoreboard against the Bolts.
It wouldn’t take entirely too long before the Wild would accomplish their goal. Wild defenseman Marco Scandella, who had good positioning in front of the net, was able to take advantage of Vasilevskiy’s position in front of the net to tip the puck in and get the Wild on the board.
Thankfully, the Wild goal inspired the Lightning to quickly put an end to the Wild’s rally. Just under three minutes after the Scandella goal, Nikita Kucherov would hit the empty net to increase the Lightning’s lead over the Wild to 4-1.
Lightning Injury Report: Cedric Paquette Leaves Game With Leg Injury (Video)
Earlier, we mentioned another achievement for Kucherov. This would be the aforementioned achievement. Kucherov’ second goal of the night would serve to be his 30th goal of the season. This would elevate Kucherov into a three-way tie with Los Angeles Kings forward Jeff Carter and Columbus Blue Jackets forward Cam Atkinson for fourth place in the NHL in goals scored.
When the final buzzer would sound, the score would remain the same. The Tampa Bay Lightning would defeat the number one team in the Western Conference, the Minnesota Wild, but the score of 4-1. While Lightning fans were, of course, ecstatic over the Lightning’s victory, it was a rather bittersweet moment for fans.
As Tampa Bay Lightning Beat Writer Bryan Burns pointed out on Twitter, the Lightning played what could easily be considered as one of their best all-around games of the year, and Lightning fans had an incredibly difficult time enjoying the victory after the loss of three essential players.
The next couple of days is going to be very telling for the Lightning. Whether or not the Lightning are forced to make any call-ups from the Syracuse Crunch will be a good indicator regarding the severity of the injuries sustained during the game.
Also, the team is heading into another crucial battle. The Lightning will return to the Amalie Arena on Saturday night to take on their in-state rivals, the Florida Panthers. As always, when a team is facing a Divisional opponent at this point in the season, every single point is important.
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In other words, the Lightning will need a clean victory over the Panthers in regulation if the Bolts really want to make a charge towards earning one of the few spots in the postseason. The Lightning has a difficult road ahead of them, but it’s nothing they can’t handle. The Bolts have been there before, and there is nothing stopping them from returning once again.