The bolts battle back in black to defeat the Carolina Hurricanes 6-4 and get back in the win column!
The month of December has been nothing but challenging for the Tampa Bay Lightning. Coming into Saturday night’s matchup they had lost seven of their last ten games on the ice, including their Monday night match against the Florida Panthers and Thursday night’s game to the Los Angeles Kings; back in front of the Bolts nation, they desperately needed to find a way into the win column on Saturday.
It didn’t look like that was going to happen for Tampa Bay early on as the Hurricanes had a 3-0 lead after the first period. Lightning fans were holding their breath as it felt like things were going from bad to worse. The Hurricanes’ goals were scored by Eric Robinson (assist by Jordan Staal), Jackson Blake on a power play goal (assists by Nikolaj Ehlers and Shayne Gostisbehere), and Bradly Nadeau (assist by Logan Stankoven).
But then evacuate the flood zones because a storm was brewing in the second period and Lightning was rampant as the Tampa Bay Lightning came striking back to tie the match and take a 3-3 tie into the third period.
Gage Goncalves got the rain started with a goal :30 seconds into the period as the Lightning were coming in like a Hurricane. Dominic James and Max Crozier had the assists.
Brayden point kept the Lightning going with their second goal (assisted by Charle-Edouard D’Astous and Nikita Kucherov).
And then it was Jack Finley, who was recalled earlier in the day with the Lightning’s game-tying third goal. He was assisted by James’ second assist of the day and Yanni Gourde.
It was full steam ahead in the third period. The Hurricanes took the lead back 4-3 early in the final period of regulation on a goal by Andrei Svechnikov (assist by Mark Jankowski and Jesperi Kotkaniemi).
But the Lightning halted the storm came back to tie it less than a minute later. Ryan McDonagh scored his fourth goal of the season (assists by Pontus Holmberg and D’Astous’ second of the day).
Jake Guentzel then got the first lead of the day for the Lightning to make it a 5-4 Tampa Bay lead on assists by J.J. Moser and Nick Paul. Guentzel then scored the goal that put the nail in the coffin and sent the Hurricanes packing with :30 seconds left in regulation. He scored an empty netter with an assist by Ryan McDonagh to complete the 6-4 comeback victory for Tampa Bay to put the Lightning back in the win column.
The Lightning (19-13-3) get just one day off, but luckily don’t have to travel as they will welcome in the St. Louis Blues (14-15-8) to Tampa Bay for a Monday night matchup at 7:00PM.