Friday, 4 a.m.
Well, look who has a winning streak.
The Tampa Bay Lightning, a championship team off to a sluggish start, won its second consecutive 5-1 victory Thursday night, this time against the winless Arizona Coyotes.
The Bolts jumped to a 3-0 lead in the first period and went into cruise control. The Bolts are now 4-3-1 on the season and beginning to show signs of playing better.
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Tampa Bay got two quick goals from Alex Killorn, then a power play goal from Steven Stamkos, breaking a streak of 15 straight power plays without a goal. Alex Barre-Boulet and Andrje Sister scored the final two goals.
“We dd what we had to do," said Lightning coach Jon Cooper. "Was it a perfect game by us? By no means. When you have a desperate team like Arizona, just getting the lead was imperative for us. We didn’t play our best. In that second period, we didn’t have the urgency we need. We’ll take the two points and move on."
Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 24 of 25 shots. For the second straight game, he allowed only a third-period goal.
Killorn now has six goals for the Lighting.
"I think we were fortunate to get the lead," Killorn said. "It was probably not our best second and third periods. I think relying a little too much on that lead. There are certain things we can do better just to not let bad habits get into your game."
The Bolts have the weekend off, then host the Washington Capitals on Monday night. The puck is scheduled to drop at 7 p.m.