Boyle celebrates his goal in the second period./ANDREW J. KRAMER
Sunday, 2 a.m.
For the Tampa Bay Lightning, his impact has impressive. But scoreless.
Try as he might, Brayden Point had not lit the lamp. He had scored in shootouts, including a game-winner, but he didn't have a goal that made it to the stat sheet.
Until Saturday night, that is, when Point scored one of four goals in the Lightning's 4-1 comeback against the New Jersey Devils. Brian Boyle, Victor Hedman and Nikita Kucherov also scored.
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Brayden Point scored his first goal that counted./ANDREW J. KRAMER
The Lightning, as is their habit, fell behind the Devils (1-0 this time). But they came back strong in the second period to take over the game. They are now 7-4-1, and they're 7-0-1 when scoring three goals or more.
Ben Bishop stopped 37 of 38 shots.
"I was saying to the guys before, I just needed a lucky one to go in, and I got it," Point said.
Coach Jon Cooper was glad to see Point's goal, too.
"He's made such a positive impact on our team," Cooper said. "You watch him on the ice, and more often than not you walk back into the (locker) room saying he didn't have any points but arguably he was our best player on the ice.
"You talk about a kid who deserved a goal, nobody deserved a goal more than him. Hopefully this opens the floodgates for him. He's been ironclad for us."
Cooper was not as pleased, however, by the slow start.
"It's an issue,no question" he said. "We've got to find a way to make sure our starts are better. If Bish wasn't being Bish, we'd have been in trouble."
The Lightning is at Florida on Monday night.
Bishop makes a stop against Hall./ANDREW J. KRAMER
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