Bolts’ offense finally clicks in victory

by Gary Shelton on March 28, 2022

in general

Sergachev had a goal and an assist./Tim Wirt

Monday, 4 a.m.

Whee! Goals!

Yippee! A winning streak!

Hooray! Climbing up the standings again!

For the Tampa Bay Lightning, there was plenty worth cheering about Sunday afternoon in a 4-1 victory over the surging New York Islanders. It was the most goals by the Bolts in five games, and it allowed a two-game winning streak, which in turn allowed the Bolts to climb back into second place in the NHL's Atlantic Division.



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In other words, it was a fine way to end the team's 11-games-in-11-cities streak.

“Last night we go down 1-0 with 13 minutes to go and for whatever reason urgency jumped back in our game," said Lightning coach Jon Cooper. "We fought our way back into it, won in overtime. And I think a little bit of that momentum carried into today. I loved our start. We could have been up a couple early. We weren’t and then we fall behind…when things aren’t going as well as you think they can and confidence becomes an issue, that’s when you have to strap the boots on and go back to work. And they did that. Nobody was hanging their heads. That was a big thing for us and (a) good result for us tonight.”

The Bolts, who had been in a funk in which they lost six of eight games and when they scored two goals or less in seven of eight, roared back with a pair of goals in both the second and third periods. For Tampa Bay, Victor Hedman, Alex Killorn, Ross Colton and Mikhail Sergachev all scored.

For Hedman, it was his 18th of the year -- a new career high.

Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 23 of 24 shots.

One of the key plays in the game came with 14.8 seconds to go in the second period. The Islanders had seemingly tied the game a 2, but the play was ruled offsides. The Bolts closed it out with a solid third period.

Tampa Bay now returns home for a Tuesday night game against Carolina. The game is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. at Amalie Arena.

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