The Tampa Bay Lightning instantly discovered their mojo Monday evening in opposition to the Colorado Avalanche and can look to maintain the offense thriving after they host the Washington Capitals Wednesday evening.
Lightning coach Jon Cooper had been overtly essential of his staff’s overpassing and highlight-reel setups over two winless video games (0-1-1), however he absolutely had no downside Monday when the puck discovered its means onto the stick of Brandon Hagel.
Identified extra for his pace and scoring, Hagel set a franchise document with 4 assists within the first interval — tying an NHL document for that complete in a gap body –in his membership’s 8-2 rout of the Avalanche.
Then he added a fifth helper on the second’s lone objective, a snipe by Brayden Level for his team-leading seventh on the ability play.
The 5 assists for a recreation matched the franchise mark held by Mark Recchi, Martin St. Louis and teammate Darren Raddysh.
And the very best praise of all of them?
“I believe (Nikita Kucherov) requested if I used to be Bobby Orr after the primary interval, and I am removed from it. However I will take that,” Hagel mentioned after the Atlantic Division staff matched its excessive mark for objectives scored this yr.
In all, it was a stunning show by Tampa Bay, which moved to 4-1-1 in its previous six video games however had just lately stumbled.
Nick Perbix, Jake Guentzel and Kucherov all scored within the recreation’s first 10:03, chasing beginning goaltender Justus Annunen because the Colorado crease grew to become a netminding turnstile. Alexandar Georgiev allowed three extra earlier than the teaching employees determined it wanted to relaxation him. Then Annunen returned and yielded third-period objectives to Guentzel and Michael Eyssimont.
The Lightning have been with out Nick Paul for the third straight recreation. Cooper mentioned at morning skate the membership can be with out the productive ahead for the remainder of the week.
Down in South Florida, the Washington Capitals confirmed they might truly win with out one of many recreation’s premier scorers, Alex Ovechkin (damaged leg).
Goaltender Logan Thompson was stellar in web with 20 saves to enhance to 9-1-1, whereas Lars Eller scored twice and Jakob Chychrun posted a objective and two assists as Washington handed the Florida Panthers their sixth defeat in seven video games, 4-1 in Dawn.
Washington dictated play a lot of the evening, because it hemmed the defending Stanley Cup champions into their very own finish by being one step forward and relentless on the puck, consistently protecting stress on Florida goalie Spencer Knight.
That finally paid off with the power-play objective from Chychrun, a local of Boca Raton, simply half-hour north of the Panthers’ area, for the game-winner in a 3rd interval that impressed Washington coach Spencer Carbery.
“I assumed the third interval was our greatest interval by far, beginning with the ability play to get us the lead there,” Carbery mentioned. “We utterly locked it down and carried the vast majority of the play within the third.
“I used to be actually happy with that third interval. That is obtained to be what it appears like.”
The victory was the primary in three tries with Ovechkin absent from the lineup for Washington. Wednesday marks the Caps’ second of six away contests over an eight-game span.
–Discipline Stage Media