TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING NOTES:
LAST GAME
Lightning 5 vs. Vancouver 4
The Tampa Bay Lightning skated to a ninth-straight victory at AMALIE Arena with a 5-4 win over the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday night…The Bolts improved to 26-13-1 on the season with a home record of 17-4-1…Tampa Bay’s nine consecutive wins are tied for the third-longest home winning streak in franchise history…The Lightning will play the second and final game of the season series Jan. 18 at Rogers Arena…VAN opened the scoring 4:14 into the contest with a rebound goal from Connor Garland…Tampa Bay responded with 5:23 remaining in the opening frame when Ross Colton won a puck battle and sent a pass to the point for Mikhail Sergachev, who fired a wrist shot towards the stick of Corey Perry, who redirected the puck past Collin Delia for his sixth goal of the season…Alex Killorn gave the Bolts a 2-1 lead at the 2:30 mark of the second period when he jumped on a rebound in front and fired a wrist shot into the top right corner for his 13th goal of the season with Nick Perbix and Brandon Hagel collecting the helpers…Former Lightning forward J.T. Miller tied the game with a power-play goal at the 5:44 mark of the middle frame…Tampa Bay regained the lead with Nikita Kucherov banging home a rebound in front off assists from Steven Stamkos and Brayden Point with 4:16 remaining in the second period…Hagel scored his 15th goal of the season at the 19:29 mark of the second when Killorn fought off two VAN defenders and sent a backhand pass into the slot where Hagel beat Delia to make it a 4-2 game…The Bolts earned a 5-on-3 power play early in the third period and Stamkos ripped his patented one-timer from the left circle past Delia for his 499th career goal with Point and Kucherov collecting the helpers with 14:30 remaining in regulation…VAN scored the last two goals of the contest with Quinn Hughes scoring at the 14:40 mark and Elias Pettersson netting the final goal of the contest with 2:08 remaining…Andrei Vasilevskiy got the start in goal and made a game-saving stop with one second remaining to earn his 18th win of the season with 36 saves on 40 shots against…Sergachev skated in his 400th career NHL game.
PP: TBL – 2-3 VAN – 1-3
SOG: TBL – 35 VAN – 40
Attendance: 19,092
TONIGHT’S MATCHUP
The Lightning and the Blues are playing the second of two matchups this season and the only meeting at Enterprise Center…The Bolts defeated STL 5-2 in the first matchup this season Nov. 25 at AMALIE Arena…Brayden Point opened the scoring with his seventh goal of the season 3:29 into regulation with Brandon Hagel and Nikita Kucherov picking up the assists…Alex Killorn quickly made it 2-0 when he scored his seventh goal of the season at the 3:57 mark of the first as Nick Paul and Steven Stamkos recorded the helpers…Point scored his second goal of the game with 11:56 remaining in the first period to give the Lightning a 3-0 lead with Kucherov and Mikhail Sergachev picking up the assists…Pavel Buchnevich got STL on the board with a power-play goal at the 16:50 mark of the first to make it a 3-1 game…Jordan Kyrou pulled STL within one when he made it 3-2 with 13:36 left in the second period…Hagel scored his sixth goal of the season just 18 seconds after Kyrou’s goal to make it a 4-2 game with Kucherov and Point collecting the assists…Paul recorded his ninth goal of the season when he found the empty net with 3:48 remaining in regulation as Killorn and Stamkos picked up the helpers…Andrei Vasilevskiy made 25 saves on 27 shots against for his eighth win of the season…Tampa Bay is 5-3-2 in the last 10 matchups vs. STL…Kucherov has recorded two consecutive three-point contests vs. STL (1-5—6)…Stamkos has pointed in three of his last four games vs. STL (1-3—4)…Point has five points over his last two contests vs. STL (3-2—5) and has found the scoresheet in five of the last seven meetings (5-4—9)…Killorn has points in three straight games vs. STL (1-3—4) and has pointed in seven of the last 10 matchups (3-5—8)…Victor Hedman has recorded nine points over his last 10 games vs. STL (2-7—9)…Tampa Bay is 16-24-5 with three ties all-time vs. STL, including a road record of 4-15- 3…Martin St. Louis (4-13—17) holds the Lightning franchise record for career points vs. STL.
TBL ALL-TIME POINT LEADERS VS. STL
- Martin St. Louis – 17 pts. (4-13—17, 15 GP)
- Steven Stamkos – 15 pts. (7-8—15, 17 GP)
- Alex Killorn – 14 pts. (5-9—14, 17 GP)
- Victor Hedman – 13 pts. (2-11—13, 20 GP)
- Nikita Kucherov – 12 pts. (5-7—12, 13 GP)
TONIGHT’S STORYLINES
Tampa Bay is playing the first game of a season-long, five-game road trip tonight…The Bolts will play eight of their 13 games in January on the road…The Lightning are 6-2-0 against Central Division opponents this season…Tampa Bay is 9-9-0 on the road this season…Bolts defenseman Ian Cole was drafted 18th overall by STL in the 2007 NHL Draft and skated in 167 games with the club over the course of four and a half seasons…Lightning goaltender Brian Elliott started 164 career games with STL and ranks sixth all-time in Blues franchise history with 104 career wins, while his .925 save percentage, 25 shutouts and 2.01 goals against average all rank first among goaltenders with 100 or more games played…Tampa Bay forward Pat Maroon is a St. Louis native and skated in 74 regular season games with the Blues before scoring the game-winning goal in double overtime to send STL to the Western Conference Final en route to the organization’s first Stanley Cup championship in 2019.
INJURIES
2022-23 Regular Season Man Games Lost: 86
Current Injuries:
Rudolfs Balcers (Upper-body injury; Day-to-day) 20 Games
TRANSACTIONS
Jan. 2 – Signed D Nick Perbix to a two-year contract extension
ST. LOUIS BLUES NOTES:
CURRENT INJURIES
Scott Perunovich – Shoulder (Re-evaluated in 6 months, announced on Oct. 4)
Marco Scandella – Right Hip (Re-evaluated in 6 months, announced on Sep. 20)
Torey Krug – Lower-Body (Re-evaluated in 6 weeks, announced on Dec. 27)
Vladimir Tarasenko – Hand Injury (Re-evaluated in 4 weeks, announced on Jan. 2)
Ryan O’Reilly – Broken Foot (Re-evaluated in 6 weeks, announced on Jan. 2)
Logan Brown – Upper-Body (announced on Jan. 7)
Robert Bortuzzo – Lower-Body (announced on Jan. 9)
2022-23 Total Man Games Lost: 176
Recent Transactions
January
13 – Assigned defenseman Dmitri Samorukov to the Springfield Thunderbirds (AHL)
9 – Placed defenseman Robert Bortuzzo on injured reserve
9 – Recalled defenseman Dmitri Samorukov from the Springfield Thunderbirds (AHL)
5 – Placed forward Logan Brown on the injured reserve
5 – Recalled defenseman Tyler Tucker from the Springfield Thunderbirds (AHL)
BLUES VS. LIGHTNING
- This Blues and Lightning will meet for their 2nd and final matchup of the season
- The Lightning won the 1st matchup of the season, 5-2 on Nov. 25 in Tampa Bay
- The Blues went 1-1-0 against Tampa Bay last season, with each team winning at home
- The Blues have lost back-to-back games against Tampa Bay, but won their previous 5 matchups with the Lightning
- The Blues have won 3 straight games against Tampa Bay at Enterprise Center and are 8-1-0 in their last 9 home games against the Lightning
- The Blues have scored a power play goal in 4 straight games against Tampa Bay, going 5 for 12 (41.7%) on the power play over those 4 games
- The Blues are 9-4-3 in their last 16 games overall since Dec. 11 vs. Colorado
- The Blues’ 9 wins share 8th in the NHL (1. Boston/Carolina, 11), while their 21 points share 6th in the NHL (1. Boston, 25 points) since Dec. 11
- The Blues are 18-6-0 this season when scoring first, which is the 6th most wins in the NHL (1. Boston, 21-0-2)
- The Blues are 1 of 4 teams to record 3 multi-goal third period comeback wins this season (Kings/Islanders/Ducks)
- With a win on Saturday vs. Tampa Bay, the Blues will become the 8th franchise in NHL history to record 2000 wins (2nd non-original 6 team, Philadelphia)
UPCOMING SCHEDULE
1/16 – vs. Ottawa
1/19 – vs. Nashville
1/21 – vs. Chicago
1/24 – vs. Buffalo
1/26 – at Arizona
A LOOK AHEAD
- The Blues will continue a season-long 7-game home stand on Saturday against Tampa Bay (1-1-0 so far) after starting 2023 with a 4-game road trip (3-1-0 on 4-game trip)
- The Blues will play 12 of their next 17 games at Enterprise Center, including Saturday vs. Tampa Bay, which will go through February and take them into March
- After Saturday vs. Tampa Bay, the Blues will have 6 straight matchups against teams that are not currently in a playoff spot
