The Tampa Lightning found their mojo in Columbus as they erupted for seven goals in a 7-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets.
The Lightning scored seven goals for the first time this season, earning their fourth straight win over the Blue Jackets.
The Lightning are slowly getting healthy, and they showed just how good they could be and will be once everyone is healthy and clicking on all cylinders.
Braydon Point continued his torrid point streak as he had a goal and two assists in the Lightning win. Point now has 150 goals in his Lightning career, which ties him with Brad Richards for seventh place for the most goals in Lightning history.
But the night belonged to the Czech-born forward Ondrej Palat, who scored the game’s first two goals and assisted on the Braydon Point goal in the second period.
With his second goal in the first period, Palat scored his 400th career point with the Lightning moving into seventh place all-time for most points by a Lightning player.
This milestone did not go unnoticed by Coach Cooper, and he talked about Palat and his contributions after the win. “He’s going to go down as one of the top players that ever was a Bolt. There’s going to be a number of players that have over 400 points, but Pally earned every one of those. He’s earned a whole slew of other guys’ points, too, that he probably gets the third assist on, or he’s the guy that’s taking a hit to make a play or going to retrieve the puck. You win championships with guys like Palat. He should be remembered as one of the Bolts that without him, we don’t win these Cups.”
Andrei Vasilevskiy, after a very uncharacteristic poor outing Sunday against the New York Rangers, rebounded nicely and looked the Vasilevskiy of old as he stopped 20 shots in the Bolts win.
The Lightning had a very spirited practice on Monday, and that seemed to be the catalyst for getting back to playing the type of game that has propelled the Bolts to two consecutive Stanley Cup wins.
First, the Lightning played with speed. That element had been missing the last few games.
Second, the passion was back in their game. The Lightning was very aggressive taking shots from all areas in the offensive zone, outshooting Columbus 38-22.
The Lightning also got back to playing the physical game that they can play against teams like Columbus. They were also great on the forecheck, forcing 13 Blue Jacket turnovers.
The Lightning was also great on special teams scoring three power play goals and shutting down all three Columbus power play chances.
Jon Cooper talked about how the team played in defeating the Blue Jackets. “We played with a little bit of confidence today. I think the guys were ticked off about the Ranger game.”
The Lightning had been outscored 16-6 in their three previous games before erupting for seven goals on Tuesday night.
The Lightning will return home for a two-game homestand starting Thursday night against Calgary, followed by a visit from the Boston Bruins on Saturday night.
