Sergachev flirting with NHL history as defense leads Lightning to another victory

by Erik Erlendsson | @Erik_Erlendsson | Like us on Facebook
December 16, 2017

While running away with the Atlantic Division in the opening half of the season, the Lightning sometimes need to find new ways to challenge themselves.

Cruising along in the third period on Saturday in Denver, the Lightning went on cruise control and turned a blow out in to a close game before holding on for a 6-5 victory against the Colorado Avalanche.

Tampa Bay has now won seven consecutive games, the third longest winning streak in franchise history, and have opened up a nine-point lead in the division standings over Toronto.

But they unexpectedly had to work to secure their 24th victory and 50th point of the season after getting a career night from Anton Stralman and a monster effort from Victor Hedman to overcome a five-point night from Colorado’s Gabrel Landeskog.

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In a bit of irony, the defense had a big hand in the offensive outburst before the defense rested in the third period that nearly led to a gigantic blown lead.

Stralman tied a career high with three points, scoring twice and assisting on the eventual game-winning goal. Stralman’s only other three-point night came as a member of the Columbus Blue Jackets on April 1, 2011. He also tied a career high with two goals, accomplished for the third time in his career and first since Feb. 5, 2016.

Hedman, meanwhile, scored his first goal since Nov. 9, had his 72nd career multi-point game and was a beast in his own end, sweeping a goal off his line with his glove and disrupting several plays with his stick.

Rookie defenseman Mikhail Sergachev, meanwhile, picked up his eighth goal of the season and his fifth game-winning goal of the season. The 19-year-old is the fourth rookie defensemen in NHL history to record five-or-more game winning goals in a season. Dion Phaneuf registered seven with Calgary during the 2005-06 season while Gord Fraser, with Chicago in 1926-27, and Shayne Gostisbehere, with Philadelphia in 2015-16, both registered five.

But what as a laugher turned in to a nail-biter at the end in a bit of an odd style of game.

After a scoreless affair through the first 29 minutes, someone hit the “down’’ lever on the magic toaster and time-warped things back to the 1980s.

The Lightning offense erupted – as they have been prone to do at times – with two goals in 19 seconds, three goals in 2:11 and four goals in 4:10.

The outburst was started when Hedman exited the offensive zone during 4-on-4 play and waited for a line change before hitting Nikita Kucherov in stride for a breakaway at 9:11. On the next shift, Tyler Johnson fed a pass toward Stralman in the slot that saw Stralman dive back to get a piece of the puck to push it in to the net at 9:30. Hedman then made a brilliant play feeding Kucherov along the wall before jumping in a hole down the left-wing side, taking a return pass from Kucherov and putting on a quick deke before scoring his third goal of the season at 11:22.

Yanni Gourde, who finished with a career-high three points, was at the top of the crease and got a stick on a pass from Alex Killorn to make it 4-0 at the 13:21 mark.

Tampa Bay had the chance to make it a complete blowout with a five-minute power play chance late in the second after Erik Johnson delivered a dirty hit on Vladislav Namestnikov, sending the Lightning forward flying in to the end boards with a cross check from behind that resulted in a five-minute boarding call and game misconduct call.

But the No. 1 power play unit in the league did little with the full five minutes registering just two shots on goal, though Stralman made it a 5-1 game just after the power play expired with his second goal of the night.

With the four-goal lead in the third period, it was almost as if the Lightning started to check out and move on to the next stop on the four-game road trip – call it Leaving (for) Las Vegas as Tampa Bay was scheduled to head for Vegas right after the game ahead of Tuesday’s first-ever meeting with the surprising expansion Golden Knights.

That opened the door for Colorado, a team that possesses a ton of speed and skill. Combine that with a Lightning team that took their foot off the gas and fueled the Avalanche attack with three bad penalties in the third period – all in the offensive zone. Colorado cashed in on the two power play chances to make it a 5-4 game while the third penalty negated a Tampa Bay power play after just eight seconds.

Sergachev would score the third goal of the night for Tampa Bay in a four-on-four situation, and the fourth goal from a Lightning defensemen, to re-establish a two-goal lead at 11:32.

That’s when Peter Budaj, making just his seventh start of the season, channeled his inner Grant Fuhr, coming up with a handful of big saves in the final minutes to earn the victory in a game in which five goals got past him.

Lightning head coach Jon Cooper would have rather not leaned on the team’s goaltender down the stretch.

”This is a hard league to win in,’’ Cooper said. “I thought we earned and built our 5-1 lead, but you take three offensive zone penalties, two they score on and one took us off the power play right away. It’s not going to help your cause. I thought we got lazy. For two periods we didn’t give them any ice, and for one period we gave them all the ice. If you’re going to give players like Landeskog and (Nathan) MacKinnon all that ice, they’re going to do what they did.

“Budaj’s line is going to show five goals against, but look at all the saves he had to make in the end. They had 19 shots in the third and they didn’t have that in two periods. As I said, it’s a tough league to win in, and they’re finding a way to win. It’s a little disappointing on how it ended. You have to feel for Budaj back there, he’d given up one and after two and I just think we didn’t play responsibly in front of him.’’

Perhaps that is the biggest disappointment in the game, Tampa Bay just sort of relaxed thinking the Avalanche – a team that has been near the bottom of the standings the past couple of seasons – were going to just lie down and play out the string in another loss.

But that wasn’t the case. A team with speed and skill suddenly played loose and free without fear of giving up the next goal as Colorado mounted the late-charge in a bid for a comeback. The Lightning got caught up in that, allowing too much open ice, watching MacKinnon skate through and around the entire Lightning team at one point to notch his first of two goals in the game.

Twice in front of the net, the Avalanche where left alone for deflections that resulted in goals.

While the easy thing to do is point at Budaj for a poor game because of the number of goals he allowed. But the measure of a goaltender is not always in the number of goals that got behind him, it’s whether or not he came up with the saves when the team needed it. Well, Budaj did that on Saturday as he was strong and solid in the first period to keep it scoreless in the opening 20 minutes. Then when the Avalanche pressed for the tying goal in the final minutes, Budaj was there to come up with the key stops to preserve the victory.

Not the prettiest way to earn the result, but the result is really what mattered as Tampa Bay continued its best start in franchise history, reaching the 50-point mark the quickest in franchise history in the 32nd game. The previous quickest came in 38 games in 2013-14 and 2014-15.

Postgame notes: D Braydon Coburn returned after missing seven games with a lower-body injury. … With RW Ryan Callahan out at least 3-4 weeks with an upper-body injury suffered on Thursday, the Lightning dressed 11 forwards and seven defensemen for the game. … RW J.T. Brown and D Slater Koekkoek were scratched. … D Andrej Sustr returned after being scratched for the previous three games. … C Brayden Point played in his 100th career game while extending his scoring streak to seven games. … C/RW Tyler Johnson extended his scoring streak to seven games. … Kucherov has goals in four consecutive games. … Tampa Bay improved to 12-1 this season against Western Conference opponents and 7-0 against Central Division teams.

My three stars:
1.Lightning D Victor Hedman – Goal, assist, plus-3, saved a goal, monster night defensively

2.Lightning D Anton Stralman – Two goals, assist to tie career-high with three points

3. Avalanche C Gabriel Landeskog Hat trick, five points, plus-2

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