TAMPA — The Lightning seemed to feel more fortunate than satisfied following their 4-2 victory over the Canucks on Thursday night.
The Canucks came to Amalie Arena as one of the league’s hottest teams, owning an 8-1-1 record in their previous 10 games since Bruce Boudreau replaced Travis Green as coach last month. Against the Lightning, they brought a fast, physical game that had the home team not feeling like itself.
“I wasn’t completely happy with a lot of things we did,” coach Jon Cooper said. “Am I happy with the result? There’s no question, and I will never frown on that. But I think we made the game harder on ourselves. And we recovered well in a lot of situations. But we played with fire a little bit.”
The Lightning had just 38 shot attempts, a woefully low number for them, and continued to commit untimely penalties that put pressure on their penalty kill.
But the Lightning’s penalty kill was probably the story of the game, going 4-for-4 and killing a pair of lengthy penalties to open each of the second and third periods.
Starting with the Canucks, the Lightning see Western Conference teams for five straight games. They didn’t play anyone outside their conference last season, so Thursday’s matchup included feeling out an unfamiliar opponent.
Tampa Bay was also without top-line forward Ondrej Palat because of a lower-body injury, and Cooper spent the latter parts of the game shuffling his top two lines in the hope it would provide a spark.
The Lightning (25-9-5) were clinging to a 2-1 lead going into the final 10 minutes of the game, and given how much they bent, they seemed to be on the verge of breaking.
Rookie forward Boris Katchouk’s goal with 8:36 remaining gave them breathing room. Katchouk collected a loose puck at the Lightning blue line and started a 2-on-1 rush with forward Ross Colton, who returned a pass for a nifty give-and-go, and Katchouk roofed the puck past Vancouver goaltender Thatcher Demko.
Even for Katchouk, who scored his second NHL goal, the Lightning made too many mistakes to be too happy with the victory.
“First of all, I almost cost us a goal by turning it over in front of the net,” Katchouk said when asked about his goal. “I know Ross. We’ve played together for a long time. So I knew he was coming back, and all I had to do was put it in the back of the net.
“We for sure have to stay more disciplined throughout the game. We are taking too many penalties, but kudos to (the penalty kill). They worked really hard, and (goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy) back there is a stud. When we’re rolling, we’re a disciplined team sticking to our structure.”
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Explore all your optionsThe penalty kill, which had been leaking oil in recent weeks, rose to the challenge. Forward Brayden Point’s double-minor roughing penalty with five seconds left in the opening period forced the Lightning to play a man down for the first 1:55 of the second. And a late second period interference call on defenseman Erik Cernak put the penalty kill on the ice for the first 1:57 of the third.
Killing both penalties provided the Lightning with much-needed momentum.
“It’s huge, especially when the team is trailing,” forward and penalty killer Pierre-Edouard Bellemare said. “If (the Canucks) get the goal in the first minute, they’re feeling good about themselves and they’re getting momentum. If you kill that two minutes, suddenly the next guys, they’re going to have to come after us.
“So the momentum swing, that’s kind of the most important part of the game.”
Vancouver forward Tyler Motte’s goal with 4:14 left in the third cut the Lightning lead to one, forcing Tampa Bay to close out the game defending a 6-on-5 down the stretch. Bellemare’s shot block freed the puck for Point, who sped through the neutral zone and scored an empty-net goal with 1:16 left to seal the win.
Vasilevskiy finished with 24 saves, half of which came in the first period.
“We probably were not as gritty as we should have (been),” Cooper said. “We got away with it (Thursday), but we have to be much better than that.”
Contact Eduardo A. Encina at eencina@tampabay.com. Follow @EddieintheYard.
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