Observations from the Lightning’s win over the Bruins
TAMPA — The Lightning might have caught the Bruins at the right time Wednesday night, with Boston coming off a hard-fought comeback win over the Panthers in Sunrise the previous evening.
But that didn’t take away from the effort Tampa Bay showed — and the momentum it continued to gain — in its 3-1 victory at Amalie Arena.
With the win, the Lightning (40-25-7, 87 points) not only strengthened their position in the Eastern Conference’s first wild-card spot, taking a six-point lead over the Capitals, but they also came within two points of the Maple Leafs for third place in the Atlantic Division.
Tampa Bay is 7-0-1 over its current eight-game point streak.
“We’ve had a bit of up-and-down season, but just stringing together this many games in a row is good for our confidence,” center Brayden Point said. “I think we’ve kind of found an identity that really works for us…Just playing simple, not forcing things, playing our structure and waiting for opportunities.”
Point’s go-ahead goal at the 6:50 mark in the second period proved to be the game-winner, and was his 10th goal in his last seven games, giving him 16 points over that stretch.
Nikita Kucherov’s empty-net goal in the final minute of regulation was his 42nd of the season, setting a new career high.
Here were four observations from the Lightning’s win:
Vasilevskiy in postseason form
You won’t hear Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy tooting his own horn, but he was at his best on Thursday night, and the Tampa Bay defense did its best protecting the area in front of the net. The Lightning allowed just three high-danger scoring chances in 5-on-5, according to Natural Stat Trick.
