Lightning Get Better As Game Moves Along

Ondrej Palat scored a pair of goals, Brayden Point, Vladislav Namestnikov, and Nikita Kucherov each scored one as the Tampa Bay Lightning opened the season with a win over the Florida Panthers.

Steven Stamkos, playing in his first regular season game since injuring his knee in Detroit last November, assisted Namestnikov’s power play goal.

Connor Brickley, Mark Pysyk, and Jonathan Huberdeau scored the Panthers goals.

It was the fourth consecutive season-opening win for the Bolts. Overall, in season openers they improve to 16-7-0 with a pair of ties.

Andrei Vasilevskiy, making his first season opening start, stopped 33 of 36 shots.

How It Happened:

Ondrej Palat scored the games first goal at the 6:35 mark of the first period. Brayden Point pushed the Lightning lead to 2-0 scoring in the first 30-seconds of the second period. Despite a 2-0 lead, the Lightning seemed to be struggling to mount an attack and were back on their heels.

Connor Brickley and Mark Pysyk each scored second period goals to tie the game at 2-2. It wasn’t a case of the Lightning suddenly shifting gears and playing poorly to allow the Panthers to get back into the game. “You could borderline say I’m not so sure when we had that 2-0 lead that we deserved to have that 2-0 lead.” Coach Jon Cooper said. “We scored, but the problem was we weren’t shooting.”

The Lightning entered the third period on a power play and a minute into the period Steven Stamkos delivered a perfect pass to Vladislav Namestnikov who tapped it into the net to push the Bolts lead to 3-2. “It was kind of funny because we were working on that the other day in practice.” Stamkos said. “Him just getting in that position where he can just literally get the heal of the stick on it and it just goes in.”

Nikita Kucherov scored the Bolts fourth goal but then Jonathan Huberdeau scored at the 5:30 mark to cutting the Bolts lead to 4-3.

After Huberdeau’s goal, the Lightning were on their heels the rest of the period. Andrei Vasilevskiy was up to the task keeping the lead in tact. Ondrej Palat sealed the win with an empty netter with less than 15-seconds remaining.

Stamkos On Return:

Steven Stamkos received the loudest ovation of any player during pre-game introductions. He made light of it saying, “It was great, I don’t want to make a habit of too big of a deal coming back from injury so hopefully that’s it.” Hear more from Stamkos about what the Bolts victory means, his performance, and more.

Cooper On Sergachev:

Mikhail Sergachev made his Lightning debut and skated for 16:03. He tied Nikita Kucherov for the team lead with four shots on goal. “I think he exceed our expectations.” Coach Cooper said of his performance. “Take the penalty aside. They’re just mistakes that a 30-year old would make. He’s a young kid learning. But what I did like, he didn’t shy away. He played confident. The puck was on his stick and he was shooting it. We want to have guys back there that do that and I was overall really pleased with the way he played.

Point On Season Opening Win:

Lightning Notes:

Ondrej Palat opened the scoring for the Lightning at the 6:35 mark of the first period. Brayden Point and Victor Hedman each picked up an assist. Palat registered his first goal of last season in the Bolts third game, also at Amalie Arena against the Panthers.

Palat later added an empty net goal. It was his 11th career multi-goal game and 67th multi-point game. (including post-season)

Brayden Point scored an unassisted goal at the 19:35 mark of the second period. Point did not score his first goal of the season last year until his 12th game on November 5th (New Jersey Devils).

Vladislav Namestnikov scored a power play goal at the 19:01 mark of the third period. Steven Stamkos and Alex Killorn each picked up an assist. Namestnikov did not score his first goal last season until his fifth game on October 22 (@Ottawa Senators).

It marked Stamkos’ first point since November 15th of last season in the game in which his season ended against the Red Wings.

Nikita Kucherov scored his first goal of the season at the 6:38 mark. He didn’t score his first goal last season until his sixth game of the season on October 25th (@Toronto).

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