Friday, 4 a.m.
There are nights when the net looks like a soccer goal, when the ice is forgiving, when the puck loves the net.
The Lightning had a night like that Thursday night, exploding in an 8-3 victory over the Calgary Flames.
It was the fourth time this season the Bolts have scored eight goals. This time, seven of them came in the last two periods.
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Highlighting the onslaught was:
— Nikita Kucherov had six points, a goal and five assists. It was the second six-point game of his career.
— Jake Guentzel had a hat trick, his first with the Bolts. He’s had eight in his career.
Guentzel has 16 goals on the season, eight of them in his last eight games.
— Brayden Point had four points. The Bolts’ top line had 13 points in the game.
Also scoring for the Bolts were uAnthony Cirelli, Brandon Hagel and Conor Geekie.
“There were 20 minutes to play and we had a one goal lead,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “‘Let’s see what winning looks like.’ It’s not the fact we scored four. It’s the fact we didn’t give anything up. That’s how you win hockey games.”
It was another game where Kucherov was a point guard, dealing to whichever player was the most open.
“He’s a magical player,” Cooper said. “He can make something out of nothing. He plays both ends of the ice. That makes him a special player.”
The Bolts held a 4-1 lead in the second period, but Calgary scored back-to-back goals to get within one. But the Bolts scored four times in the third period to run away.
Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 19 of 22 shots to win his 12th game of the season.
The Bolts played without Victor Hedman and Erik Cernak. They lost J.J. Moser during the game, leaving their defense short-handed.
The Bolts scored on all three power plays they had. They did not draw a penalty.
Tampa Bay plays at Seattle on Saturday night at 9:30 p.m.