Sunday, 4 a.m.
There were so many reasons the Tampa Bay Lightning should have lost Saturday night.
They didn't, which might be the finest compliment you can give a team.
--- They gave up 11 power plays (and killed 10 of them).
-- They had 87 minutes in penalties.
-- They were 0-6 on the power play.
-- The Panthers spent the entire third period attacking the goal.
Despite it all, the Bolts won a 4-2 game against the Florida Panthers. Goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy was sharp, keeping the Panthers out of the net. Vasilevskiy stopped 24 of 26 shots. He is now 14-7-2 on the season, and 9-2 in his last 11.
The Bolts fell behind 1-0 on a goal by Eetu Luostarinen. But Jake Guentzel tied it on a shosrthandedd goal. Pontus Holmberg gave the Bolts a 2-1 lad with eight seconds left in the first period.
After that, Nikita Kucherov took over. He scored his 14th goal with 2:31 left inthe second period. He added his 15th with 56 seconds left.
"I don't think ive ever been a part of a game where one team had double-dgit power plays," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "They had 11 power plays. It wasn't like it was game with a 6-7 goal difference. One team was short 11 times."
The Bolts killed off 10 of the pentalties.
Tampa Bay has now won three straight, scoring 14 goals. They lost the three before that, scoring five times.
The Bolts return home to Benchmark International Arena today for a game against Montreal at 5 p.m.
-- i don't think ive ever been a part of a game where one tam ahe doubler-dgit poer plays. they had 11 power palys. it wa't like a 6-7 goal difference. lne team was short 11 Tims.
-- thats when you neeeyour toalie. ultimatel y he's yiur est penaltiy killer. it was a pretty gutty wi for the group. in the end, it was good for the pk tonight...
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