Friday, 4 a.m.
The formula is simple for the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The fewer goals it allows, the higher it climbs in the standings.
The Bolts moved into third place in the Atlantic Division of the NHL Thursday night, handing the sliding Boston Bruins their sixth straight defeat by a 4-1 acore. Once again, the Bolts were solid defensively. They’ve allowed just six goals in their last five games, although three of those games were defeats.
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“You have to play so consistently in this league to get into the playoffs,” said Lightning coach Jon Cooper. “You can’t let the ups and downs get to you. I thought our process was pretty good (on the West coast). In the Boston game tonight we had that two-goal lead and they pushed and pushed and our goalie came up big. It’s so razor thin in this league. I haven’t minded how we’ve played this last little bit.”
Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy has had his hands full against the Bruins, coming in with just a record of 9-11-2. This time, however, he stopped 27 of 28 shots for his 17th win of the season.
The Bolts scored their opening goal on a shorthanded shot by Anthony Cirelli, his third of the season. It was the Bolts’ eighth shorthanded goal and Cirelli’s 16th overall.
“You want your special teams to be a momentum-grabber,” Cooper said. “You’re not going to score every time you’re out there, but hopefully, in the (opposing) power play, you can get in their heads that you can score.”
Also scoring for the Bolts were Mikey Eyssimont, Brandon Hagel and Brayden Point. Both Hagel and Point scored empty netters.
It was Points’ 600th career point.
The Bolts are on the road against New Jersey Saturday night.