Sunday, 4 a.m.
Is it too soon for Jake Guentzel to ask for a raise?
Not that Guentzel needs the cash. After all, he signed a seven-year, $63 million contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning just last June. Turns out, that may have been a bargain.
Guentzel scored another goal in the Lightning’s 5-1 victory over Seattle Saturday night. Of course he did. Guentzel has now scored a goal in six straight games. He was coming off a hat trick against Calgary, which gave him
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eight goals in that spurt, and 17 for the season.
This time, he scored the team’s third goal early in the third period, giving the Bolts a 3-1 lead. It was the Lightning’s third win in their four-game road trip and improved their record to 16-10-2.
The Bolts have scored 13 goals in their last two games, but they started slow on Saturday night. They didn’t get off a shot for 7 1/2 minutes.
“The first time-out and we’re being outshot 7-0 and we’re on our heels,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said,
The Bolts got a strong effort from backup goalie Jonas Johansson, who stopped 21 of 22 shots. Johansson, who isn’t used often, is now 3-1-1 on the season.
The Bolts fell behind 1-0 early, but scored the last five. Brandon Hagel scored two of them, one of them an empty-netter. Also scoring was Brayden Point, who scored his 20th of the year, and call-up defenseman Declan Carlile, who scored his first NHL goal.
Cooper thought the defense was the reason for the successful road trip.
“We defended,” Cooper said. “We don’t need any more goals. We’ve scored enough, What we didn’t do was give up the big chances or the freebies.”
The Bolts now have points in 10 of their last 14 games.
Tampa Bay returns home to Amalie Arena for a Tuesday night game against Columbus (7 p.m.).