TAMPA, Fla. _ The Lightning had a sense of urgency in Monday's practice. The 16-game point streak was over, the team was back from the West Coast. Players and coaches alike wanted Tuesday's game to be a good one.
Tampa Bay went out, scored four goals and notched its second shutout of the year. So, yeah the Lightning responded well to its first regulation loss in over a month, beating Columbus 4-0.
Mathieu Joseph got the Lightning started, about four minutes into the game. Mikhail Sergachev carried the puck down low and then passed it to the net front, where Joseph redirected it past Sergei Bobrobsky.
Less than a minute later, Brayden Point put the Lightning up 2-0. His original pass deflected off a Blue Jacket and then bounced around as he and Tyler Johnson tried to coral it. Nikita Kucherov threw the puck to the front of the net, where it bounced off Point's skate and into the net.
The second period was not a great team showing for the Lightning. Columbus out-shot Tampa Bay 17-3 and Tampa Bay went 12:07 without a shot at one point.
Andrei Vasilevskiy stood up for the Lightning, though, and made all 17 saves on his way to 31 in the game and his second shutout of the season.
About six minutes into the third period, Johnson forced two defenders to converge on him as he crashed to the net. That left Kucherov wide open to score and give the Lightning a 3-0 lead.
And that line wasn't done. Point extended the Lightning's lead to 4-0 about halfway through the third period as he snuck the puck between Bobrovsky's legs while fighting off Cam Atkinson.
