Momentum building for Tampa Bay Lightning after victory at Winnipeg

by Erik Erlendsson | @Erik_Erlendsson | Like us on Facebook
February 11, 2017

That momentum the Lightning knew they needed to get on a run, it might be building up.

Tampa Bay waltzed in to Winnipeg looking to take the next step in that process and skated out with a 4-1 victory at MTS Centre on Saturday.

Ben Bishop stopped 32 shots for his third consecutive victory, and has allowed three goal during the streak. He has a 0.97 goals against average and .961 percentage during the streak.

Ondrej Palat, Brayden Point and Victor Hedman all finished with a goal and as assist. Brian Boyle also scored for the Lightning, which improved to 3-0-1 in the past four games, picking up points in four consecutive games for the first time since a four-game winning streak from Nov. 14-19.

Tampa Bay also snapped a seven-game winless stretch in the second of back-to-back games. The only other time the Lightning won on consecutive nights came Nov. 14-15.

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Now, they sit and wait for a week as Tampa Bay enters the bye week where they are off for five days before resuming practice on Friday. The Lightning resume play Feb. 18 at Dallas.

The Lightning enter their break having climbed from 16th place in the Eastern Conference to 12th with a 25-24-7 record. Tampa Bay is four points behind Toronto for the final wild card spot and five points behind Boston for the third place spot in Atlantic Division.

How far that gap grows in the next week could determine how realistic of a chance the Lightning have of climbing up in to a playoff position despite the long odds.

But at least they finally have some momentum, which has been so elusive to this point.

Point put the Lightning on the board first with his fourth goal in six games since returning from injury, but it was all set up from work by Jonathan Drouin, who made the steal in the slot area, circled with speed toward the outside near the wall, cut toward the back of the net and as he made his way to the other side, slipped a pass to Point in the crease at 12:05. The play by Drouin was not quite like “The Shift”, which TSN once turned in to an entire feature from Drouin’s draft year, but it was still quite a shift.

No words. pic.twitter.com/eTFyV7p3Hq

— Bryce (@HowYouDrouin) February 12, 2017

Tampa Bay kept the pressure up after scoring the goal, pushing the Jets back in to their own zone. And, much like the first goal, were rewarded for the work when Filppula won a clean faceoff back to Jake Dotchin at the right point. Dotchin slipped the puck over to Hedman who fired a shot from the center point that was deflected by Boyle for his 13th of the season at 17:02.

11 is always exactly where he needs to be. #TBLvsWPG pic.twitter.com/Ml2xFFnxSC

— Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) February 12, 2017

The lead after the first period is the first 2-0 lead Tampa Bay has held after the opening 20 minutes since Nov. 14 at the New York Islanders.

The Lightning came out to start the third just as they finished the second, getting pucks in deep, creating a forecheck and testing the Winnipeg defense. Just 2:11 in to the middle frame, Palat was sent in by Point for an open look on the left wing side and wired a wrist shot to the top corner on the short side to give Tampa Bay a 3-0 lead with his 11th goal of the season.

See Ondrej skate, see Ondrej snipe. #TBLvsWPG pic.twitter.com/YSEfhrLiNE

— Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) February 12, 2017

The Lightning held that three-goal lead heading in to the third period and even as the Jets made a push in the final period, getting a goal from Jacob Trouba at 11:15 on a rare defensive zone breakdown in the game as he was open at the right circle to wrist a shot past Bishop, who had not allowed a goal since the early part of the third period against Anaheim on Feb. 4. The goal snapped his shutout streak at 132 minutes, 13 seconds.

Hedman would hit the empty net with 36 seconds remaining, his first goal in 17 games dating back to Dec. 28 against Montreal.

Postgame notes:. C Tyler Johnson missed his second consecutive game with an undisclosed lower body injury. … D Luke Witkowsk was a healthy scratch. … Tampa Bay improved to 22-6-1 this season when scoring three or more goals. … LW Ondrej Palat tied a season high with a plus-3 rating. … D Andrej Sustr recorded his 50th career point with an assist.

My three stars:
1.Lightning G Ben Bishop – Stopped 32 shots to record his third consecutive victory

2.Lightning LW Jonathan Drouin – Assist, plus-2, two takeaways, brilliant shift on opening goal.

3.Lightning D Victor Hedman – Goal, assist, plus-1, five shots on goal, three blocked shots

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