TAMPA, Fla. – The Tampa Bay Lightning edged the Anaheim Ducks 4-3 Thursday evening when Bolts forward Jake Guentzel scored the lone goal in sudden death.
Goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy turned away shots by Anaheim forward Mason McTavish and Ducks leading scorer Troy Terry in the shootout to allow Tampa Bay to win its 24th game of the season, leaving the Lightning in sixth place in the Eastern Conference.
“There are times we have tiptoed into games to see how this one is going to go and then we are down,” said Lightning coach Jon Cooper. “Our third periods in games have been exceptional.”
Anaheim scored the game’s first goal at 6:03 in the first period as the Ducks came off the penalty kill and Anaheim forward Ryan Strome found leading scorer Troy Terry for his 15th goal of the season as he cut toward the net on the left side of the Tampa Bay zone.
Back-to-back power play goals allowed Tampa Bay to take a 2-1 lead at 2:51 in the second period when Nikita Kucherov found Guentzel at the top of the crease.
Guentzel scored his 22nd goal of 2024-25 when he offered a shot at the five-slot on Anaheim goalie Lukas Dostel, who pushed it away with a blocker. Guentzel followed when he scored off the rebound on the right side of the crease.
This followed Anthony Cirelli’s power-play marker at 14:19 in the first period when Brandon Hagel hit him with a pass as Victor Hedman and Kucherov used a prolific checkerboard passing attack which netted Cirelli’s 18th goal of the season.
“He has confidence and chemistry with ‘Hagues,’” commented Cooper. “ I think those two have grown together. They are best friends off the ice and they can work magic together on the ice. They know what each other is thinking.”
Hedman picked up his 600th career assist and is the latest of several Lightning players to reach the milestone. Kucherov looks like he is next as he posted two assists and now has 598 in his career.
“It goes to show you the level he has played at for an entire career,” Cooper commented. “It’s not like you get half of those in one season. It’s a consistency thing. He’s been fantastic with that.”
Tampa Bay presents one of the NHL’s most accurate lineups on special teams. The power play is at fifth in the NHL as it connected on 25.6 percent of its opportunities coming into Thursday night’s game.
“It’s ‘Kuch’ coming down and different hands on both units and ‘Kuch’ on different sides,” said center Brayden Point. “I think it gives penalty kills more to worry about than just having the one look and both units got one, so I think it’s a good step in moving forward.”
The success on the power play reaffirmed the Lightning’s status as Tampa Bay only had four power play opportunities on the recent three-game road trip through New Jersey, Pittsburgh, and Boston; thus, didn’t score on the odd-man advantage.
After Mason McTavish tied the game at 2-2 at 11:26 in the second period, Point and Kucherov challenged the Ducks on an odd-man rush against Ducks defenseman Olen Zellweger. Kucherov passed to Point who scored with Zellweger inside of the net.
The goal was not immediately credited to Point as he had clearly scored. At the next time stoppage, the referees looked at the rush for Point to score and awarded him the goal and a 3-2 Lightning advantage.
“I didn’t know it went in,” said Point. “I thought he blocked it. He got a poke check on it and I was able to just kind of grab it and sling it at the net and lucky enough it just crossed the line.”
At 9:53 in the third, Anaheim forward Robbi Fabbri tied the game at 3-3 on the blast from just inside the blue line.
After the scoreless overtime, Guentzel scored the only goal of the shootout for the Lightning, giving them a hard-fought 4-3 win.
Tampa Bay is scheduled for 16 games in 29 days in January. This is quite an excursion, but the Bolts have steadied to a 4-4-1 mark during the month. This schedule has included two road trips of three games each and a four-game road trip which starts next Monday in Toronto.
“In my tenure here, I am not sure if we have played 16 games in a month,” said Cooper. “It’s been a grind for these guys and they keep answering the bell.”
