The Lightning know all too well how hard-fought their games against the Blue Jackets can be.
They know how difficult it can be to get an open look against Columbus, how the Blue Jackets are constantly pressuring the puck, how they can make a game chippy with their physicality, and how they can take away Tampa Bay’s skill advantage by making a game ugly.
The Lightning might not be willing to call the Blue Jackets rivals just yet, but now that they’re division opponents, Tampa Bay’s ability to outlast Columbus’ frustrating game will be a big part of the Lightning’s path back to the postseason.
So it might be fitting that the Lightning’s first of eight regular-season meetings with the Blue Jackets went to overtime Thursday night, and that it ended on Brayden Point’s goal to give Tampa Bay a 3-2 win.
Victor Hedman charged up the ice on a 3-on-3 play and found Point with a cross-crease pass to give the Lightning a 3-0 record to start the season.
They committed some untimely penalties down the stretch, including one that cost them a tying goal early in the third period. But the Lightning killed the next two Blue Jackets power plays.
Once the Lightning started finding open ice, they started finding the back of the net, erasing a one-goal deficit with back-to-back scores over an 83-second stretch late in the second period.
It didn’t take long to notice that the Lightning looked like a team that hadn’t played in nearly a week after two games were postponed by the Dallas Stars’ delayed start because of a coronavirus outbreak.
Just 21 seconds into their first road game of the season, and their first game since last Friday, the rust was evident when sure-handed defenseman Victor Hedman lost the puck at Tampa Bay’s blue line.
The giveaway gave Columbus wing Oliver Bjorkstrand a good look at the right circle, and he beat goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy gloveside for an early goal.
Vasilvskiy kept it a one-goal game until the Lightning could find their offensive footing, including a power-play kill midway through the second quarter.
The Lightning tied it with some pretty transition play with forward Blake Coleman — missed two days this week on the COVID-19 protocol list — on both ends of the play with a goal at 16:33 in the second.
Coleman poked the puck away from Alexandre Texier in the defensive zone, and defenseman Ryan McDonagh led the transition. He sent a pass to Yanni Gourde along the left side leading the rush. Gourde then tapped back to McDonagh in the slot, and he found Coleman on the left side of the crease for the score.
McDonagh was also the playmaker on the Lightning’s go-ahead goal. He took a cross-crease pass at the left circle from Anthony Cirelli, who took possession in the neutral zone. McDonagh then found Mathieu Joseph skating through the slot, and Joseph’s one-timer beat Blue Jackets goaltender Joonas Korpisalo gloveside to give Tampa Bay a 2-1 lead.
Columbus tied the game early in the third, taking advantage of a man-advantage when defenseman Nick Foligno redirected Bjorkstrand’s shot past Vasilevskiy.
The Blue Jackets were scoreless on their first eight power plays this season before that goal.
The Lightning didn’t have much space to work on the offensive end early. Barclay Goodrow had a well-directed tip in the slot off McDonagh’s slap shot at the 16:32 mark in the first, but Blue Jackets goalie Joonas Korpisalo stopped the puck and covered it.
Tampa Bay had a pair of 2-on-1 rushes in the first, but Point couldn’t find Goodrow in front of the net. Alex Killorn and Tyler Johnson also had a rush, but Killorn couldn’t get a clear shot on net.
The game had its share of post-whistle pushing and shoving, but it wasn’t until midway through the third when defenseman Luke Schenn and Foligno both served five-minute fighting majors.
