The Tampa Bay Lightning kept pace in the Atlantic Division race Thursday, remaining four points behind the Buffalo Sabres for second place while opening a four-point cushion on the third-place Montreal Canadiens, who fell 3-1 to the Detroit Red Wings.
Jake Guentzel opened the scoring at 17:37 of the first period, deflecting a shot from Charle-Edouard D’Astous. The goal marked Guentzel’s 30th of the season, making him the third Lightning player to reach the milestone.
The Lightning were without captain Victor Hedman after the first period. Head coach Jon Cooperindicated his early absence was due to illness.
“I’ll let everybody know tomorrow,” Cooper said after the game. “He wasn’t feeling well.”
Asked whether it was illness rather than injury, he added, “Yeah.”
The Lightning broke the game open early in the second. Darren Raddysh scored just 49 seconds into the period, finishing a one-timer off a feed from Nikita Kucherov to make it 2-0.
© Bob Frid-Imagn ImagesKucherov added to his resume in the process, recording his 124th career three-point game — the fourth-most among active players, trailing Sidney Crosby (189), Connor McDavid (149) and Alex Ovechkin (141).
Yanni Gourde extended the Lightning’s lead to 3-0 on a deflection.
“We played hard tonight, probably got some bounces that in the end we probably deserved,” Cooper said. “We were going through a little bit of a nonshooting phase for a bit, but caught some breaks on some deflections and some tips.”
Tampa Bay’s top line of Brandon Hagel, Anthony Cirelli and Kucherov combined for eight points (three goals, five assists).
Cirelli added a third-period goal, redirecting a cross-ice pass from Hagel to restore a three-goal cushion as the Lightning secured a 6-2 win.
“Our team has played a bit more of a direct game,” said Cooper. “Every time we get in trouble, our game gets too cute. We've been spending too much time in our zone, and for the last couple nights, guys have made a big effort to push that puck north and we've defended well, and when we haven't, the goalie has been there to make a save for us.”
The Lightning will head to Edmonton to start their back-to-back and close out the road trip.