Raw Charge
Summary
The offense is slowly starting to find its footing for the Tampa Bay Lightning. For the second straight game they piled up the scoring chances, and while it was a one-goal game late, a strong third period pushed them to a 4-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers. Pontus Holmberg and Ilya Mikheyev each had a goal and an assist while Andrei Vasilevskiy made 13 saves on 14 shots. Brayden Point and Brandon Hagel added goals while Tyson Foerster was credited with the lone Flyers’ goal. Max Crozier drew into the game in place of Emil Lilleberg as the Lightning went 11/7 for the second straight night. For much of the first period, the play on the ice resembled a practice where the coaches wanted everyone to work on puck battles. A lot of dump-ins, a lot of battles along the boards, while getting actual shots on net seemed to be an afterthought. In the case of the Flyers, it’s what they wanted as it has been an area they needed work on based on their previous three games. For the first half of the period, they held their own. Then, they got a little careless as Owen Tippett and Trevor Zegras took penalties roughly seven minutes apart. The Lightning wouldn’t find the back of the net on either opportunity, but they started to get the better of the play following their advantages. Their forecheck started to create some pressure and force some turnovers. Stuck in their own zone, the chances against started to pile up against Philadelphia, and it felt like it was only a matter of time until the Bolts capitalized. At the 16:05 mark they finally put one past Dan Vladar, who finished with 32 saves. It came off of something that has been a talking point for the Lightning early in the season – face-offs. Brayden Point won one in the offensive zone and Nikita Kucherov did a good job of digging the puck out of his skates with a defender on his back. He got the pass back to John Carlson who whipped a puck on net. Point was there with his stick to redirect it. Just like the Lightning drew it up on the whiteboard. From then on, the pressure was really on for the Bolts. The Flyers were a boxer hanging on to the ropes just hoping for the bell to ring. Vladar had to be sharp at the end of the period to make a flurry of saves to keep his team in the game. Meanwhile, Andrei Vasilevskiy had a fairly easy period as Philadelphia was credited with just three shots on goal off of seven attempts. Brayden Point’s face-off win in the first period led to the first goal, and it was a face-off win in the second that might have kept the Bolts up a goal through forty minutes. After Pontus Holmberg put the Lightning up 2-0 before fans had settled back into their seats for the start of the period, the Flyers finally joined the game. It would be a stretch to say there were dominating play, but they were at least starting to create some chances and time in the offensive zone. They also started just putting the puck towards the net, and it worked as Tyson Foester’s shot hit Charle-Edouard D’Astous in front of the net and went in past Vasilevskiy. The momentum was starting to turn a little as the Flyers generated some chances and had the Bolts scrambling a little. Then at the twelve-minute mark, Point won a defensive zone face-off and that line went down the ice and created a couple of chances. The Anthony Cirelli line followed up with a nice shift right after, and it felt like some pressure was released as the Lightning settled back into their game and started to pile up some chances. They killed off a penalty (and almost regained the two-goal lead on an odd-skater rush with Mikheyev and J.J. Moser) and got their forecheck going again. It would have been nice if they could have added another goal, but Vladar was there to turn aside prime chances by Jeff Viel and Moser. A late penalty by Cirelli gave the Flyers another power play, but the Lightning held fast. A hallmark of the Cup days was the Lightning taking a lead into the third period and not letting up on the pressure. That’s the way they came out in the final frame on Monday. After they cleaned up the final thirty seconds of the penalty kill, they got to work on searching for their third goal. Max Crozier thought he had it after he slammed one into a fairly open net, but it was immediately waved off by the official. They ruled that Vladar had not been able to reestablish his position after a collision with Hagel (hence, the open net). Hagel earned a power play by taking a stick to the face shortly after, and then almost found paydirt, but his shot hit the post. Vladar got just enough of Kucherov’s shot to keep it out, and then made a nice save on Crozier shortly after the power play expired. Philly had their chances as Zegras found iron and Vasilevskiy had to make a sprawling save on a redirection. An elbowing penalty by Hagel ramped up the feistiness on the ice, but the Lightning killed off the penalty fairly well. The chances kept coming after the Philly power play, but Vladar stood tall. Just as everyone started to keep an eye on the Flyers net to see if the goaltender would vacate it, the combination of Holmberg and Mikheyev made it pointless. A turnover in the neutral zone gave Holmberg the puck and he absolutely snatched David Jircek’s soul with a deke. That opened up a lane to pass the puck to Mikheyev on the far post, but it came in a little hot. Mikheyev simply settled the puck down and tucked it in on a backhand wraparound to make it 3-1 and all but end the game. Brandon Hagel made it 4-1 with an empty net goal, and the Bolts had their second straight win. The Goals Brayden Point (1) [John Carlson, Nikita Kucherov) 1-0 Lightning Pontus Holmberg (1) [Ilya Mikheyev, Zemgus Girgensons) 2-0 Lightning Tyson Foerster (1) [Nick Seeler, Sean Couturier], 2-1 Lightning Something went wrong trying to get this video from NHL.com please try deleting this block and inserting again. Ilya Mikheyev (1) [Pontus Holmberg] 3-1 Lightning Brandon Hagel (1) [Nikita Kucherov] Empty Net, 4-1 Lightning The Numbers Box Score Time on Ice – Lightning Natural Stat Trick