Friday, 4 a/m.
His team’s comeback began with one of his own. Who says the Tampa Bay Lightning doesn’t follow Brayden Point?
After a period of Thursday night’s game, Point was dragging. He was minus two, and his team had only five shots against the New York Rangers. It didn’t look pretty.
And then Point took over.
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He had three goals. The had three assets. He tied a franchise record for points. And he led the Bolts to an impressive 6-3 comeback victory over a talented Rangers’ team.
Point, who scored his fourth career hat trick, wasn’t alone. Nikita Kucherov had five points (a goal and four assists.) Steven Stamkos scored the eventual winning goal. And goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy won his 23rd game of the year.
It was a solid win for the Bolts, who also got their second goal from Anthony Duclair in two games.
“I’ll tip my cap to Pointer.,” said coach Jon Cooper. "He was dash-two (minus two) after the first period (as was Kucherov). Those guys knew they had better in them. It was impressive what they did in these second and third periods. They did a lot of things away from the puck. For us, they’re big players on our team. They have a lot of pride. They even’t happy with how things went in the first period and did something about it.
“We have a group that wants to make the playoffs. They believe they can. No means is one win putting us in the playoffs. We have a lot of work to do. But early in the season, we probably find a way to lose that game. With under 20 left, this team is finding a way to win those.”
The Bolts travel to South Florida to play the Panthers on Saturday night at 7 p.m..