Utah’s top six forwards went scoreless through the full 60 minutes on Sunday. Despite a tough road matchup, the Lightning found a way to grind out a win and now they head to Colorado with two more points.
“This team, they’re good. I remember last year we came in here and they tore us apart,” Jon Cooper said of Utah. “A big thing for us was protecting the middle of the ice, and I thought we did a really good job of that. Now you know you give up a breakaway 10 minutes in, but I really liked the way we responded. Really didn’t give them too much after that.”
The Lightning had to lock in after going down 1-0 in the first period, when Utah’s Lawson Crouse capitalized on a turnover in the offensive zone and scored on a breakaway. The Lightning responded well, settling into their game and weathering Utah’s push the rest of the way.
Yanni Gourde netted his third goal of the season after sending a pass to defenseman Emil Lilleberg at the top of the circle. Lilleberg quickly fed it back to Gourde, who buried the pass to tie the game up 1-1.
Anthony Cirelli kept the momentum going, scoring off a feed from Jake Guentzel. Cirelli, a Selke Trophy finalist last season, currently leads the team with seven goals and has a plus-seven rating on the year so far.
It was clear Utah was going to push hard in the third period, and they broke through when defenseman Ian Cole found Kailer Yamamoto with a pass that tied the game up 2–2.
“Unfortunately they tied the game there at two, but again, really wasn’t feeling crazy stress,” Cooper said of his team’s performance. “We weren’t giving up big odd-man rushes, and then Guentz gets a big one for us and it’s fortunate we could shut it down. That’s the only way we could win tonight, and the guys played well.”
Guentzel snapped a shot past Utah goaltender Karel Vejmelka, marking his first game-winning goal of the season and sealing a victory for the Lightning.
“Just a good draw won by Tony and Pointer going to the net there to open up some space. (I) just tried to throw it on net and catch him off guard,” said Guentzel. “You take them as they come and you move on, and it’s a big win for us.”
Brandon Hagel snagged the empty-net goal to give the team a 4-2 win.
The Lightning will face Colorado (7-1-5) on Tuesday before heading to Vegas to complete their three-game road trip.
“This is a grind because now we have a really high-level Colorado team, and then we’ve gotta go in and play Vegas, so just can’t take our feet off the gas,” said Cooper. “We had a slow start to the season and kind of clawed our way back here, but it’s a long way to go.”