In Tampa, the Lightning were relentless on Tuesday night in their match with the visiting St Louis Blues.
The Lighting scored six straight goals for a 6-0 lead into the third period before taking a 6-1 decision.
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 29 saves in the win.
Tampa improved to 15-13-5.
“We have to simplify our game, it sounds like a cliché,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. “When you do those things, you’re hoping to put teams under duress, making the game a little more unpredictable in their defensive zone. If you’re around it and shooting enough, good things usually happen.”
The Lightning came out fast in the opening stanza, posting three goals headed to the middle frame.
Michael Eyssimont opened the scoring at 2:23 of the first for a 1-0 lead to Tampa.
Tyler Motte potted a goal at 17:10 for a 2-0 advantage.
Nikita Kucherov scored the first of a pair of markers with 14 seconds left in the first and 3-0 lead.
St Louis dropped to 15-15-1.
“It was a poor start, and we weren’t able to get any kind of forecheck,” Blues coach Drew Bannister said. “I think we had 10-13 turnovers in the [defensive] zone and 10 turnovers in the offensive zone.
Kucherov’s double came with 98 seconds gone in the middle frame for a 4-0 lead.
Hatdn Fleury scored at 12:13 of the second to balloon the lead to 5-0 for Tampa.
“It’s always nice to contribute and it’s nice to win at home,” Fleury said. “Anytime you can take pressure off of ‘Kuch,’ ‘Stammer,’ (Brayden Point) and get some secondary scoring, I think that’s what good teams do.”
Nicholas Paul scored at 7:53 to add one more to the pile and a 6-0 lead for Tampa Bay.
“I think a big message to us was to simplify the game,” Paul said. “Work hard, win battles, get pucks to the net and win battles in front of the net. We weren’t getting enough bodies in front, but tonight we got bodies in front and the goalie couldn’t see the puck.”
The Blues’ Justin Faulk scored at 15:56 to ruin the shutout bid and make it 6-1 for the final.
“You’ve got to find a way to tilt the ice and stop the bleeding early, and we weren’t able to do that tonight,” the Blues’ Brayden Schenn said. “Yeah we had some chances, but we only had [18] shots going into the third period.”
Jordan Binnington got the start for the Blues, and surrendered five of the Tampa goals, making 18 saves before getting the hook in the middle frame.
Joel Hofer made 10 saves in a mop up role.
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