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After a four-game losing streak to start the month of November, the Tampa Bay Lightning seem to have found their footing. The team has reversed course, now on a three-game win streak instead, a position teams would much rather find themselves in.
Outside of maintaining confidence, that win streak has also helped stabilize the team’s standing in the Atlantic Division – in a still young season, albeit – giving them a bit of separation in that third spot.
It wasn’t easy, though. Tampa Bay needed a gutsy win Tuesday to find themselves in this position.
Until the Clock Hits Zero
That’s the mantra the Lightning lived by Tuesday against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Headed into the third period, the team was down 2-0.
Richard Rakell and Jesse Puljujarvi were the Penguins’ two scorers. Their efforts seemed to break the game open, though it ended up not being enough. For Rakell, the goal broke a nine-game cold streak and gave him his seventh of the season. It came off a Sidney Crosby assist, which moved him into 13th-most in NHL history with 1,017.
A RICKY ROCKET GOES UPSTAIRS! 🙌 pic.twitter.com/0PiHbDrJTf
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) November 20, 2024
Then, at 5:41 in the third, Brayden Point put in a goal for the Lightning that sparked the comeback. Not long after, Anthony Cirelli banged the puck into the net to tie it all up and send the game to overtime.
It culminated with 1:02 left in the overtime period, with Point playing hero again. He scored the winner, his 10th goal of the season, and the Lightning had their third straight win.
Couldn't have dreamt of a better ending 👏 pic.twitter.com/OYSAcxWNQz
— Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) November 20, 2024
Other Tampa Bay contributors – goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy had 17 saves. Janis Moser had an assist, the pass that led to Point’s winner.
Coming Up
As is life in pro sports, the Lightning don’t have much time to celebrate their win. They’ll be back out on the ice on Thursday, against the one team lower than the Penguins in the Metropolitan Division standings – the Columbus Blue Jackets.
If they win that one, it’ll be four straight, a quick 180-degree turn from the same-length opposite-direction streak they were on just a few weeks ago.
It’s still too early in the season for rankings and standings to matter, though. Over the course of 82 games, things will of course get clearer, so speculation is all there is right now.
The team has the league’s 10th highest point-scorer in Nikita Kucherov, with 26, which is always something to hang your hat on and an eternal piece of optimism. In fact, Kucherov is attempting to put his name into an elite group – 900+ points by a winger within their first 750 games. He only needs one more and has eight more games to do it.
One of the most dominant NHL players of the last decade, Nikita Kucherov is also pacing toward one of the most impressive careers seen from a winger in NHL history as, heading into tonight's @TBLightning game vs the Penguins, he sits just 1 more point away from joining this list pic.twitter.com/TeYdwQOxzw
— StatsCentre (@StatsCentre) November 19, 2024
The Lightning seem to enjoy setting fastest-to records this year, as Vasilevskiy became the fastest goaltender to get 300 wins in NHL history, with 490 games, earlier in the month in a win against the Winnipeg Jets.
Ultimately, being the fastest to do things isn’t the most important. It’s about being the last ones on the ice at the end of the season, and there’s a lot of skating to do before Tampa Bay can say that.
