And sometimes you don’t play well and get rewarded with 2 points anyway. That’s how Brayden Point finished his statement after last night’s game, which saw the surging Tampa Bay Lightning tip their way multiple times past the VGK by a final score of 4-2. “Tonight it wasn’t our best, but we get the two points and we’ll take it,” Point concluded.
The VGK played extremely well, especially in the first period, but went unrewarded as Tampa Bay scored 2 goals on deflected shots that got by Marc-Andre Fleury. The second one was actually tipped and deflected twice before it snuck past Fleury.
The first goal scored by Brayden Point that opened the scoring might be the only goal that Fleury could have stopped, but Point snapped a shot past Fleury just under his blocker. The VGK did just about everything possible in the first period, but managed to score only one goal against TB through 2 periods of play. Tampa Bay scored 2 goals on just 8 shots in the first period. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 27 saves on the 29 shots Vegas peppered him with, especially Max Pacioretty, who had 11 shot attempts (five on goal), along with 2 glorious scoring chances early in the first period.
With last night’s win, Vasilevskiy tied a Lightning record with a 16-game personal point streak (14-0-2). Former TB goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin went 12-0 with four ties from Feb. 15 to April 2, 2003.
William Carrier was in the midst of a 14-game goal-scoring drought, but he tied the game at 1-1 when he finished a play that was set up by both Brayden McNabb and Cody Eakin. Yes, that Cody Eakin, who’s had his struggles this season, which most likely will be his last as a VGK. Carrier’s goal, his 6th of the season, started when Eakin carried the puck from deep in his defensive zone and beat 2 TB players in the neutral zone, then dished the puck to McNabb, who had just skated inside the blue line at the left point. McNabb found Carrier, who had just jumped on the ice from the bench and was trailing the play. Carrier wasn’t picked up by the 2 trailing TB players and had a clear shot on Vasilevskiy. He snapped it past the TB goaltender to tie the game at 1-1.
Tyler Johnson broke the tie 2 minutes and 12 seconds later. Johnson’s goal was tipped and deflected 2 different times before the puck found its way past Fleury, who faced only 17 shots last night and surrendered 3 goals. In his defense, TB got all the bounces — and just at the right times. Other than TB’s 4th goal, an empty-netter, their 2nd and 3rd goals were just tips and deflections that just found the right spot to deny the VGK any points in their quest to remain in the playoff picture.
Stastny tied the game at 2-2 early in the 3rd period when he too scored his goal on a deflection as he tipped Jonathan Marchessault’s shot from just inside the blue line. McNabb had the secondary assist on Stastny’s goal, giving him an assist on both VGK goals last night. Stastny has scored a goal in 4 of the 6 games since Peter DeBoer took over for Gerard Gallant.
Steven Stamkos added to the deflection/tipping party, scoring the winning goal when it appeared that the VGK would exit the zone and Stamkos was left alone in front of Fleury, while both McNabb and Schmidt were headed out of the zone.
With Vancouver, Calgary, and Edmonton also losing last night, Vegas remains in 3rd place in the Pacific Division. Arizona won last night and is tied with Vegas with the exact same record of 27-21-7, but Vegas has the tiebreaker after beating Arizona twice this year in their 3 games played and is in sole possession of the last playoff spot in the Pacific Division. Five teams in the Pacific Division are separated by 5 points from 1st to 5th place. The crazy world of the Pacific Division will remain a game-by-game night-by-night standings race to the finish that may see the 2 wild-card teams come from the Pacific Division, as Nashville, Chicago, and Winnipeg trail the top 5 teams in the Pacific in points.
Vegas concludes its longest road trip of the season when they play the final game of the 8-game trip, which started in Buffalo and cost Gallant his job, tomorrow night in Florida against the Panthers at 4 p.m.
Under PDB, Vegas is 3-2-1 for 7 points out of a possible 12. If Vegas can win on Thursday, the welcome for PDB at T-Mobile on Saturday night will not be as hostile as first expected. But the crowd reaction on Saturday at T-Mobile will be interesting, to say the least, win or lose on Thursday.
Your comments and opinions are welcome here at Las Vegas Advisor or you can contact me directly at [email protected] or visit my Facebook page of the Facebook page of Vegas Hockey Guy
Never miss another post
Jeremy John West commented
They did look good though! Just simple “puck luck”
Tamara Feist-Hatfield commented
So true!