There have been many nights recently when the Lightning looked at the scoreboard and wondered what they had to do to score more goals. Despite a number of chances, Tampa Bay found itself stymied by a maddening mixture of hot goaltenders, missed nets and pings off the post.
But Thursday night against one of the league’s staunchest defensive teams, the Lightning made one early goal last, surviving the Kings’ third-period surge before closing out a 3-0 victory at Amalie Arena with two late goals.
“You just never know when they’re going to come,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “And I guess the lesson is that you can still defend your way to a win. … We clearly needed that.”
The Lightning (27-20-3) had scored just one goal over their past two games and two or fewer in three of their last four, despite creating more than enough chances to win. For a team that had lost four of five, the win meant more than two points.
Goaltender Andrei Vasilevksiy recorded his third shutout of the season and first since Nov. 16 after missing Tuesday’s game against the Blackhawks with an illness and not practicing Wednesday.
“Vasy was Vasy. Sick or not, I think he’s still the best in the world,” said forward Brandon Hagel, whose two-goal, three-point night included the Lightning’s first goal just 4:45 into the game.
An emotional boost
Hagel’s first-period goal gave the Lightning an early lead, and his celebration was fitting for a team that desperately needed something to go its way.
Gage Goncalves shoveled a pass to Hagel as he sped through the neutral zone. Hagel cut inside Kings defenseman Jordan Spence, tucked the puck back under his stick, drove to the net and beat goaltender David Rittich between the legs.
Hagel then yelled into the crowd, threw his left fist in the air and jumped onto the glass along the boards in celebration.
“The best part of hockey is scoring goals. I just love scoring goals,” Hagel said. “You don’t get to do it very often. You don’t get to do it your whole life. So for me, scoring is the best thing in the world.”
Kings forward Quinton Byfield beat Vasilevskiy at 7:41 of the second, but the Lightning successfully challenged the play for being offside.
“I think clearly a big turning point of the game was when the challenge went our way,” Cooper said. “Who knows what happens if the game is tied? But the big thing for our team was we felt maybe could have been up more than just one after two. So it was, how were we going to play in the third? We didn’t think we needed to change anything.”
Playing the right way
With Vasilevskiy coming off an illness, Cooper said a main goal was making sure the Lightning didn’t get stuck in their own end, and they did a good job at that.
“You’re nervous at a certain part of the game when they get a really good chance,” Cooper said. “But he looked really calm there. So, it was great to see.”
The Lightning’s third line of Zemgus Girgensons, Nick Paul and Gage Goncalves stood out during 5-on-5 play, making sure Tampa Bay kept pushing in the offensive zone. The trio combined for 12 shot attempts and seven shots on goal, both team highs, in 9:40 together.
“We just work hard,” Paul said. “We work hard, and we try to force pucks over. Once we get the puck, we just try to keep pucks going to the net and winning battles. When a line keeps hounding and hounding and hounding, it’s hard to get out of the zone. So, that’s what we try to do.”
Sticking to it
The Lightning had 29 of their 37 scoring attempts in the first two periods and only Hagel’s goal to show for it. But they locked own in the final period, allowing just seven Kings shots on goal before taking advantage of a glorious scoring opportunity.
In their 15 games before Thursday, the Lightning’s expected goals were 53.58, but they scored just 38. Even Thursday, they didn’t come close to their expected goals of 4.5
“We just kind of put that behind us,” Hagel said. “I mean, it is what it is at this point. It’s almost laughable coming into the second period where some of those haven’t gone in. I think we just put that aside and continued to play our game. We knew they were going to come, and they ended up coming.”
After winning a defensive-zone faceoff, Hagel chipped the puck forward to Nikita Kucherov, who drove to the net. But Kucherov couldn’t get a shot off as Rittich jetted out to challenge him. Hagel had gotten a step on defenseman Drew Doughty and jumped on the rebound to score with 4:21 remaining.
Hagel then assisted on Anthony Cirelli’s shorthanded empty-net goal with 77 seconds left.
“It’s been going on for a bit where the chances are there and maybe early this year where they were going in, right now they’re not,” Hagel said. “But I think it shows a lot of grit by our team just kind of sticking with it, kind of putting that frustration behind you and just continuing to play the game.”
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