TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING NOTES:
LAST GAME
Lightning 4 at St. Louis 2
The Tampa Bay Lightning skated to a third-straight victory on Friday night with a 4-2 win over the St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center…The Bolts improved to 27-13-1 on the season with a road record of 10-9-0…Tampa Bay swept the season series after defeating STL 5-2 Nov. 25 at AMALIE Arena…The Lightning improved to 5-3-2 over the last 10 games vs. STL…Tyler Pitlick opened the scoring 2:39 into the contest to give STL an early 1-0 lead…After Nick Perbix pinched up the right boards and stole the puck in the offensive zone, he sent a pass to the slot for Brayden Point, who found some space inside the left post for his team-leading 24th goal of the season to tie the game at one with 7:38 remaining in the first period…With the Bolts on the power play, Point got his second goal of the game to make it a 2-1 game just 4:21 later when he beat Jordan Binnington off a tic-tac-toe passing play with Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov…Following an offensive zone faceoff win from Point, Mikhail Sergachev sent a pass across the blue line to Perbix, who fired a slap shot that beat Binnington to give the Lightning a 3-1 lead with 7:16 remaining in the second period…Pavel Buchnevich pulled STL within one at the 13:55 mark of the second before Alex Killorn scored his 14th goal of the season 4:27 later off a no-look, backhand pass from Brandon Hagel to make it a 4-2 game…Neither team scored in the third period…Andrei Vasilevskiy got the start in goal for Tampa Bay and earned his 19th win of the season with 23 saves on 25 shots against.
PP: TBL – 1-2 STL – 0-3
SOG: TBL – 30 STL – 25
Attendance: 18,096
TONIGHT’S MATCHUP
The Lightning and the Kraken are playing the second of two matchups this season and the only meeting at Climate Pledge Arena…The Bolts defeated SEA 6-2 in the first matchup this season Dec. 13 at AMALIE Arena…The Lightning got off to a fast start with Ian Cole opening the scoring at the 1:31 mark of the first with a shot from the point that got through traffic and beat Philipp Grubauer…Erik Cernak doubled Tampa Bay’s lead with a wrist shot into the top left corner with 12:36 remaining in the first…Jared McCann got SEA within one at the 18:39 mark of the opening period…Corey Perry made it a 3-1 game with a power-play goal at the 12:13 mark of the second period with Ross Colton collecting the lone assist…Brayden Point walked through the SEA defense and chipped a backhand into the top right corner just 1:15 after Perry’s goal to make it a 4-1 game…Colton scored at the 15:36 mark of the second when he redirected a point shot from Mikhail Sergachev to make it 5-1…Steven Stamkos scored with 14:31 remaining in regulation to extend the lead to 6-1…Ryan Donato made it 6-2 with 4.5 seconds remaining before the
final horn sounded to end the game…Andrei Vasilevskiy earned the win with 36 saves on 38 shots against…Nikita Kucherov picked up his 400th career assist in the victory…Stamkos (2-3—5) and Victor Hedman (2-3—5) have both recorded points in all three of Tampa Bay’s all-time contests vs. SEA…Kucherov (1-4—5) and Point (1-3—4) have both played two career games vs. SEA and recorded multi-point games in both contests…The Bolts are 3-0-0 all-time vs. SEA and 1-0-0 at Climate Pledge Arena…Hedman, Kucherov and Stamkos are tied for the Lightning franchise record for career points vs. SEA.
TBL ALL-TIME POINTS LEADERS VS. SEA
T1. Nikita Kucherov – 5 pts. (1-4—5, 2 GP)
T1. Victor Hedman – 5 pts. (2-3—5, 3 GP)
T1. Steven Stamkos – 5 pts. (2-3—5, 3 GP)
- Brayden Point – 4 pts. (1-3—4, 2 GP)
T5. Anthony Cirelli – 3 pts. (1-2—3, 3 GP)
T5. Ross Colton – 3 pts. (2-1—3, 3 GP)
TONIGHT’S STORYLINES
Tampa Bay is playing the second 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 5-2-0 against Pacific Division opponents and 12-4-0 against the Western Conference this season…Tampa Bay is 10-9-0 on the road this season…The Bolts have won three straight games entering tonight’s contest, while Seattle is riding a franchise-long, eight-game winning streak.
INJURIES
2022-23 Regular Season Man Games Lost: 87
Current Injuries:
None
TRANSACTIONS
Jan. 15 – Assigned F Rudolfs Balcers to AHL Syracuse for conditioning
Jan. 2 – Signed D Nick Perbix to a two-year contract extension
GAME POINT
Tampa Bay forward Brayden Point recorded his second-straight multi-point game with two goals and one assist Jan. 14 at STL…Point has picked up eight points over his last three games vs. STL (5-3—8)…Point extended his point streak to three games (3-3—6) and has found the scoresheet in nine of his last 10 contests (9-5—14)…Point has scored a goal in 12 of his last 17 games (15-6—21)…Since Dec. 6, only Alex Ovechkin (17) and David Pastrnak (16) have scored more goals than Point’s 15…Point (25-20—45) leads all Lightning skaters in goals, game-winning goals (6) and even-strength goals (16), while ranking second in even-strength points (29), third in both points and powerplay points (16) and fifth in assists…Point is tied with Steven Stamkos for the Bolts team lead in power-play goals with nine…Point’s 25 goals are tied for the 12th-most among all NHL skaters…Only Leon Draisaitl and Kyle Connor (8 each) have scored more game-winning goals than Point this season…Point (192-221—413, 458 GP) ranks fifth in Lightning franchise history in goals, while ranking ninth in points and 10th in assists…Point’s career average of 0.90 points per game ranks fifth all-time among third-round draft picks in NHL history…Point has recorded the third-most points off all skaters drafted in the 2014 NHL Draft and is the only skater in the top five that was drafted outside of the first round…Point has recorded a shot on goal in every game this season…Point is averaging 3.1 shots per game, the first time that he’s averaged over three shots per game in his career.
SEATTLE KRAKEN NOTES:
LAST GAME
Seattle 8 at Chicago 5
Goals: McCann (3), Sprong, Beniers, Burakovsky, Tolvanen, Bjorkstrand
Goalie: Jones (22/27)
PP: 0/2 PK: 0/2 Shots: Seattle 30 – Chicago 27
CURRENT INJURIES – (Man Games Lost: 108)
Chris Driedger (ACL; IR) – 41 games – month-to-month
Joonas Donskoi (upper body; IR) – 41 games – day-to-day
Jaden Schwartz (undisclosed) – 1 game – day-to-day
TRANSACTIONS IN PAST 7 DAYS
N/A
UPCOMING GAMES
Tuesday, Jan. 17: Seattle at Edmonton, 6 p.m. PT
Thursday, Jan. 19: New Jersey at Seattle, 7 p.m. PT
Saturday, Jan. 21: Colorado at Seattle, 7 p.m. PT
Wednesday, Jan. 25: Vancouver at Seattle, 7 p.m. PT
Friday, Jan. 27: Calgary at Seattle, 7 p.m. PT
THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW
• Today’s game is the final meeting between the Kraken and Lightning this season. Seattle is looking for its first-ever win against Tampa Bay.
• The Kraken enter today’s game just one win shy of matching their total (27) from the 2021-22 season.
• Entering play Sunday, the Kraken topped the Western Conference with a 0.677 points percentage this season. They currently sit second in the Pacific Division with 56 points.
• Today’s game against the Lightning and tomorrow’s game against the Oilers is the Kraken’s third back-to-back set this season. The team will play in eight total back-to-back sets this year, two of which where the first game is played at home and the second on the road. The Kraken have a 1-0-1 record in the first game of a back-to-back set this season.
• Oliver Bjorkstrand has seven points (two goals, five assists) in his last seven games against the Lightning.
• Alex Wennberg has four goals in his last four games against Tampa Bay.
LAST TIME OUT
• The Kraken defeated the Blackhawks 8-5 on Jan. 14 in Chicago, extending their win streak to a franchise best eight games.
• The win also made the Kraken the first team in NHL history to sweep a seven-game road trip according to NHL Stats.
• The Kraken had 15 different skaters record at least one point, which set a franchise record.
• The team scored six goals in the first period, setting a franchise record for most goals in a single period. Seattle’s six goals came in the first 13:11 of the game, which is the eighth-fastest a team has scored six goals from a start of a game in NHL history according to NHL Stats.
• Additionally, according to NHL Stats, the 10:21 of game time it took the Kraken to score six goals is the second-fastest mark over the last 10 NHL seasons. Only the Colorado Avalanche (8:00) on Nov. 7, 2019 scored six goals quicker.
• The Kraken became the eighth road team in NHL history to have every forward record at least one point in the same period according to NHL Stats after accomplishing the feat during the game’s first period. The Kraken are the first road team to have every forward tally a point in a single period since the Buffalo Sabres did so on Jan. 17, 1975. Seattle is also the first team – home or away – to have every forward record at least one point in the same period since the Quebec Nordiques did so on Feb. 1, 1983.
• Jared McCann scored the first hat trick of his career and became the second player in franchise history (Jordan Eberle; Nov. 4, 2021) to have a three-goal game.
• Vince Dunn and Adam Larsson both finished the first period with a plus-6 rating, which according to NHL Stats, tied the highest plus/minus rating by an individual player in a single period since 1959-60 when the stat was first tracked. Canadiens defenseman Pierre Bouchard was a plus-6 in period three on April 2, 1977.
• Larsson finished the night with a plus-7 rating, becoming the first player since Sergei Gonchar on Jan. 11, 2003 to have a plus/minus rating of seven or better in a single game.
• Matty Beniers scored his sixth goal of the road trip. According to NHL Stats, his six goals tied for the fourth-most by a rookie in NHL history during a road trip of at least seven games.
• Daniel Sprong’s first-period goal was his 14th of the season, matching his career high that reached in both 2018-19 and 2021-22. With 35 games played this season, this is the fewest number of games it has taken Sprong to score 14 goals.
• Vince Dunn set an individual career high for consecutive games played with an assist and tied his career best for consecutive games with a point (both six) with an assist on Matty Beniers’ first-period goal.
• Jamie Oleksiak earned an assist for the 100th point of his NHL career. He became the eighth defenseman from the 2011 NHL Draft to reach the milestone.
• The game was the 900th of Jordan Eberle’s career. He recorded one assist in the win.
