In Tampa, Andrei Vasilevskiy made 21 saves in a 6-3 win for the Lightning over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday night. 
Nikita Kucherov hit for a double and four points in the win.
Tampa improved to 25-13-1.
“The guys like scoring goals, we like scoring goals, but we got away with giving up three tonight,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. “And that’s definitely one too many. We will hopefully be a little bit better against Vancouver (on Thursday).”
Kucherov and Nicholas Paul scored in the first period to put the Lighting up 2-0 in the first period.
“When you’re the ice with him you expect the unexpected,” Paul said. “He didn’t look at me once and it’s right on my tape. Couple of shifts I had before, I kind of learned to keep my stick on the ice. You get in the shot lane, and the next thing you know my stick is open and he slides it right across without even looking. He’s a special player.”
Columbus dropped to 12-56-2.
“You don’t want to give anything for free and I feel like we did that,” Columbus coach Brad Larsen said. “[The Lightning] are good enough to generate [offense] on their own. They make you pay on mistakes, they’re really good at that.”
Columbus got on the board in the middle frame on a marker from Gavin Bayreuther.
“First and foremost their power play is lethal,” Bayreuther said of the Lightning, who were 3-for-4 with the man-advantage. “Kucherov is one of the best half-wall guys in the League. That being said, I think we gave up again. Guys get frustrated. It’s hard, it’s really hard to win in this League, but it’s really unfortunate.”
Tampa restored its two-goal lead on a strike from Vladislav Namestnikov .
“Goals haven’t come easy this year, so you have to take the opportunity and I got one there on the breakaway,” Namestnikov said. “I saw I had a clear lane and he was out of position, so I took it to the backhand.”
The Blue Jackets kept it close and got back to within one when Tim Berni scored in the third period, but Kucherov hit for a [power play goal to push the lead to 4-2 for Tampa.
That opened the offense and Brayden Point and Ross Colton hit for goals to extend the advantage to 6-2.
“We’re learning the hard way,” Larsen said. “Guys are trying, they’re giving effort. We get back within a goal and then we take penalties. You take two penalties against a group like that and they make you pay.”
Columbus’ Kirill Marchenko scored at 16:34 for the 6-3 final.
Elvis Merzlikins made 40 saves in the Blue Jackets loss.
You must be logged in to post a comment.