Brayden Point Scores Twice In Lightning Victory

Brayden Point celebrated his 21st birthday at Madison Square Garden by scoring a pair of goals including the game winner as the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the New York Rangers 3-2. Gabriel Dumont added a goal and Peter Budaj stopped 26 shots in picking up his first win as a member of the Lightning.

The Lightning improve to 32-26-9 and have now recorded a point in eight of their last nine road games (5-1-3). They have given up two goals or less in seven of their last nine road games and 10 of their last 12. They have picked up picked up points in seven of their last eight games (6-1-1) and 14 of their last 16 games (11-2-3).

Steven Kampfer and Michael Grabner scored for the Rangers who fall to 44-23-2 on the year.

Lightning’s Playoff Odds Tracker:

The Lightning’s playoff odds improved greatly with their win over the Rangers and the Islanders 8-4 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes.

According the the web-site sportsclubstats.com the Lightning entered Monday night’s action with a 19.7-percent chance of making the playoffs. Monday’s action improved their odds by 10.6-percent.*

The victory over the Rangers improved their odds by 7.8-percent. The Islanders loss to the Hurricanes increased their odds by 2.7-percent. The Columbus Blue Jackets win over the Philadelphia Flyers improved their chances by 0.1-percent.

*The Boston Bruins and Vancouver Canucks game will factor into the overall odds. Currently, the Lightning trail the Bruins by three points for third place in the Atlantic Division.

Heading into Tuesday night’s action.

The Bolts and Islanders each have 14 games remaining and are tied with 75 points. They are each a point behind the Toronto Maple Leafs for the final wild card spot.

Tuesday evening will be another big night for the Lightning as they take on the Ottawa Senators. The Islanders will travel to Carolina for a rematch with the Hurricanes and the Maple Leafs will be in South Florida to take on the Panthers.

Jon Cooper On Victory:

Just an exceptional effort, on a night when I actually thought both teams were off. That game was up for the taking.

We weathered the storm in the first, pretty fortunate to come out 1-1. The power play’s just kind of chipping away for us. After that it was just anybody’s game. Our goalie just happened to make one more save than theirs.

The little engine that could, Brayden Point, he came up big for us.

Lightning Notes:

Brayden Point turned 21 years old and scored twice. He now has 11 goals this season. His first goal came on a power-play to tie the game at 1-1. His second which was the game winner put the Bolts up 3-2 at the 13:21 mark of the third period. It was Point’s fifth multi-point game this season and first multi-goal game of his career.

Nikita Kucherov picked up assists on both of Point’s goal. He has 10 goals and 10 assists over his last 10 games, notching a point in nine of those games. It was his 17th multi-point game of the season.

Jonathan Drouin picked up an assist on Point’s power-play goal. It was his 21st point recorded on the power play which is third on the Bolts behind Nikita Kucherov (25) and Victor Hedman (27, T-1st in NHL).

Peter Budaj won his first game as a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning. He also picked up his first win since February 21st (2-1 win over the Colorado Avalanche). It was his 28th win on the season which ranks ninth in the NHL.