Bishop, Boyle help Bolts stop losing skid

by Erik Erlendsson | @Erik_Erlendsson | Like us on Facebook
December 3, 2016

TAMPA, Fla. – Never say the Lightning fail to stand up to a challenge.

With oil leaking all over the place during a four-game losing streak, Tampa Bay plugged the holes with a solid showing in a 2-1 shootout victory against the Washington Capitals on Saturday at Amalie Arena.

Ben Bishop, who was riding a personal four-game losing streak, was in control all night, smothering pucks and preventing rebound opportunities while stopping 35 shots.

{mprestriction ids=”1,2″}

Nikita Kucherov scored his 13th goal of the season while Brian Boyle had the shootout deciding goal in the fourth round to give Tampa Bay the extra point and pick up the first victory since defeating Philadelphia on Nov. 23.

“It was a big win, we stopped the bleeding,’’ Boyle said. “We played really well and we got the results.’’

From the onset, the Lightning looked like a team confident things were going to go their way. In a good pace to the game, Tampa Bay looked solid defensively from the opening drop of the puck.

The forecheck was established early and it set the tone at both ends of the ice, an element that had been lacking in recent games.

“Everybody paid the price tonight,’’ defenseman Victor Hedman said. “We played desperate, we played together and that was one of our more complete games we’ve had all year. Our PK was outstanding and just an overall great performance. That’s the way we want to play and we need to just keep building on this.’’

During the four-game slide, the coverage in the defensive was soft, particularly around the crease area where teams started to have a field day getting opportunities from in close.

A team that preaches playing good defense had allowed four-or-more goals in four consecutive games, the first time that had happened since Jon Cooper was named head coach on March 25, 2013.

Ben Bishop discusses a 2-1 shootout victory against Washington

But the 2-1 mindset returned against Washington, even as the Capitals had six power play chances, all coming from the second period on. Though Nicklas Backstrom scored at 6:24 of the second period to tie the game, the Lightning had two more to kill off, including one with 33.5 seconds left in overtime, just to get it to the shootout.

“When they scored their goal, we were probably a little more on edge than we were with the one-goal lead but there’s a reason you get the lead, then you have a better chance to win the game,’’ Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. “It was tough because one of the big things is you have to keep them off the power play . . . and we take (six) in the final two periods, so I thought our penalty kill did an outstanding job. And if you were to sit there and say we were going to take (six) penalties and give up one goal against Washington, we would take that all day.’’

Bishop was a big part of that as well.

For a team fighting some confidence, having Bishop look like a two-time Vezina Trophy finalist provided some. Even for a goaltender who had a 1-6-1 lifetime record against Washington with 3.74 goals against average and .880 save percentage, the confidence was strong.

“We needed to end that skid we had going,’’ Bishop said. “To do it at home in front of these fans against a good team is nice. Definitely a big win, now we just need to build on it.’’

That comes on Sunday with a 5 p.m. start in Carolina.

Postgame notes: D Jason Garrison was scratched with a lower body injury after taking a puck off the inside of his knee on Thursday in St. Louis. … RW J.T. Brown and D Nikita Nesterov were scratched. … Tampa Bay improved to 10-1 this season when scoring the first goal. … C Brayden Point improved to 3-for-3 on shootout attempts this season. … RW Nikita Kucherov has eight goals and 13 points in the past 11 games. … C Vladislav Namestnikov returned to the lineup after sitting as a healthy scratch in the last game.

{/mprestriction}