Wednesday, 4 a.m.
There for a while, it was happening again. The Tampa Bay Lightning were playing down to the level of another awful opponent.
And then they weren't.
In their first home game after a long road trip, the Bolts were slopping it around against the woebegone Anaheim Ducks, who entered the game tied for the worst record in the league. The Ducks got off 10 of the game's first 15 shots and were in a scoreless tie going into the second period.
And then the Lightning played like big boys.
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The Bolts rolled to a 6-1 win, overwhelming the Ducks in the second period. Tampa Bay had 22 shots in the period; Anaheim had just one. The Bolts scored four times.
"We kind of dug in, had a little more netfront," said Lightning coach Jon Cooper. "That opened up some stuff for us and pucks started going in. A little more blue color hockey that helped us in this second period."
The Bolts jumped the Ducks in the second period with goals from Nick Paul (his career-high 17th), Ross Colton, Anthony Cirelli and Zack Bogosian (his first of the year). In the third period, Brayden Point (the 200th of his career) and Corey Perry scored. Nick Perbix had three assists.
Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 24 of 25 shots for his 27th win of the year.
"It took a bit for us to find our legs," Cooper said. "Goalies are really good. If you’re not going to take their eyes away, they have a pretty good chance of stopping them.”
The Bolts are home against Buffalo on Thursday night for a 7 p.m. game at Amalie Arena.
