It was a great way for the lightning to start the second half of the season as they garnered points in all four games and collected a total of seven out of a possible eight points on their west coast trip.
The only blemish on the trip an overtime loss to the Dallas Star on Monday night as former Lightning goalie Ben Bishop out dueled Andrei Vasilevskiy to get the win.
The lightning struggled a bit in Anaheim in the 4-3 win against the Ducks, but found their mojo in San Jose against the Sharks as Curtis McElhinney stopped 30 shots to get his his first shutout of the season and earned his sixth win.
Curtis McElhinney who has not had the greatest support this season got everything he needed as the Lightning recorded their third shoutout of the season.
“It was a nice game, one of those ones you kind of work into as the game goes on. It was nice to be on the right side of it.” Curtis McElhinney and his comments after the shutout win.
The line of Stamkos, Kucherov, and Point was the best line on the trip as they combined for seven goals and 12 assists in the four games.
We have not always seen a good effort from the Lightning in the second of back to back games, but on Saturday night the Lightning were fantastic and kept pushing the whole game.
The set the tone in the first period as they outshot the Sharks 13-2 in the first period, but Sharks goalie Aaron Dell made some very good saves to keep the Sharks in the game and keep the Lightning off the scorebo
One other facet of this game that Lightning fans have been longing to see is the lock down mentality showed by the Lightning in the third period of the 3-0 win.
Get the lead, and then play tenaciously in the final period protection that lead and thats just what the Lightning did last night.
This is the kind of hockey we expected to see form this team when the puck dropped in October. It took two and a half months for this team to find their rhythm and right now they look unstoppable.
The Lightning are 15-2-1 over their last eight games and gave moved to within five points of the first place Boston Bruins in the Atlantic Division.
The Lightning will now start a three game homestand this week hosting Vegas, Pittsburgh, and the New York Islanders.
