After losing three straight games, the Lightning, with help from Ondrej Palat bounced back with a dominating 7-2 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets Tuesday night. Palat contributed on three of the team’s goals.
Milestone for Ondrej Palat
At 30 years old, the Lightning winger has amassed 400 career points. That ranks him at seventh in the Lightning’s all time points leaders. He is also top ten in all time goals and all time assists for the Lightning.
In Tuesday’s game against the Blue Jackets, Palat scored twice and assisted one goal. His two goals were the team’s first two scores off the assist from Brayden Point. His second goal was his 400th point.
So far this season Ondrej Palat has 27 points from 12 goals and 15 assists.
How the win happened
The Tampa Bay Lightning scored seven goals in their win against the Columbus Blue Jackets Tuesday night. That ties the team’s season high that they achieved against the Red Wings October 14, the second game of the season, and the Canadiens on December 5.
The Lightning had six different players score a goal. Palat scored twice, and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, Alex Kilorn, Pat Maroon, Corey Perry, and Brayden Point all scored once.
Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy recorded his league leading 18th win this season. He currently ranks sixth in the NHL for total saves.
Defenseman Victor Hedman recorded one assist in the game which pulls him alongside Adam Fox of the New York Rangers for most points by a defenseman this season.
What’s next for the Bolts?
The Lightning sit atop not only the Atlantic Division, but the whole NHL with 49 points on 22 wins and five overtime losses. That is just one point ahead of the division rival Florida Panthers.
On Thursday, the Lightning will play host to the Calgary Flames who have played just three games since December 11.