Lightning end Kraken’s eight-game winning streak
SEATTLE — On Monday afternoon, the Lightning faced the hottest team in the league and continued to bolster their defensive play.
The sophomore Kraken returned home after winning all seven games of his road trip – an NHL record – and eight straight games overall. In the new year, they were the best team in the NHL, scoring a league-best 41 goals and averaging 5.13 goals per game, also topping the table.
But if the Lightning want anything from their five-game trip west, it’s going to be returning to Tampa as a better team.
Though the Seattle roster they faced Monday at the Climate Pledge Arena was better than the one they overwhelmed a month ago with a four-goal win at the Amalie Arena, the Lightning showed with a 4-1 Victory one of their best defensive performances of the season. snatch the streak of the octopus.
The Lightning (28-13-1, 57 points) have four straight wins and opened their journey with victories in St. Louis and Seattle before heading across western Canada to games in Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary.
Blitz goalkeeper Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 22 of 23 shots to claim his fourth straight win and seventh in his last eight starts. Tampa Bay’s two bottom lines provided offense, with goals from centers Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Nick Paul before two late goals came from empty nets.
The Lightning penalty, which started the day with an 87.5% success rate in the last 19 games, played well again and kept Seattle scoreless on three power play chances.
The Lightning batted at 2:17 in the first period with a goal from their fourth line when Bellemare diverted Ian Cole’s puck to the net from just inside the blue line.
Tampa Bay dominated the game early and beat Seattle 15-6 in the first period. Four of those shots were made by Steven Stamkos, who was often set up early when attempting to score his 500th career goal.
After defender Zach Bogosian went inside for a trip penalty at 6:47 in the second, Vasilevskiy made a notable left save to stop Matty Beniers and a moment later Cole blocked Andre Burakovsky’s open shot from the right circle.
After Lightning killed the third penalty, Paul recovered behind the net and scored at 6:44 in the third period, cementing a career high with his 16th goal of the season.
Vince Dunn, flipping the puck to allow Paul’s goal, ended the Blitz’s shutout bid with 9:16 left by shooting a puck down the blue line that hit Cole’s skate and netted.
Brandon Hagel’s goal from the empty net again made it a two-goal game with 1:39 left and Victor Hedman scored another goal from the empty net in the final minute.
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