It’s an interconference clash on the ice as a pair of teams hoping for better results than they’ve gotten over the first couple weeks of the season take the ice in Silicon Valley. The Tampa Bay Lightning are on the road as they make the trip west to face the San Jose Sharks Saturday afternoon. Tampa Bay comes in off a 4-2 road victory over Anaheim in their previous contest Wednesday night. San Jose let a two-goal lead slip away but rallied to beat Toronto 4-3 in overtime Thursday night at home in their most recent game. The Lightning have won five straight and seven of the last 10 meetings in the series, including a 3-2 overtime win at home in the most recent matchup on February 1, 2022.
Tampa Bay evened their record on their swing through California at 1-1 as they took down the Ducks on Wednesday night. The Lightning entered Friday with a 4-4-0 record on the season and stood in a five-way tie for fourth in the Atlantic Division, five points behind the Bruins for the division lead. Tampa Bay went into Friday tied for 22nd in the league in goals per game as they average three goals per contest. The Lightning stands tied for 16th in goals against by allowing 3.13 goals per game. Tampa Bay is tied for 9th with the man advantage as they cash in on 25% of their chances with the man advantage this season. The Lightning are 11th in penalty killing as they successfully work through 82.1% of their shorthanded situations on the year.
Against Anaheim, it was a tight game most of the way before the Lightning seized control in the final five minutes to earn the victory. The Lightning held a 10-4 advantage in shots on goal in the opening period and took a 2-1 lead to the dressing room after 20 minutes of play. After falling behind 1-0, Mikhail Sergachev tied the game for Tampa Bay with his first goal of the season at 17:18 off assists from Nicholas Paul and Nick Perbix. Less than 90 seconds later, Nikita Kucherov gave the Lightning a 2-1 lead with his second of the year at 18:44 off assists from Victor Hedman and Philippe Myers. The second period saw Tampa Bay with a 13-10 shot advantage though they gave up the only goal of the period, leaving the game even at two after 40 minutes of play. In the third period, the shots were even at seven apiece but the Lightning tallied a pair of goals to send them on to victory. Brandon Hagel gave the Lightning the lead for good with his third goal of the season, on the power play, at 15:33 with assists going to Sergachev and Ross Colton. Paul added his second of the season, into an empty net, a t 19:58 off an assist from Hedman to seal the win. Brian Elliott made 19 saves for the Lightning, who held a 29-21 edge in shots on goal, in the victory. Andrei Vasilevskiy is expected to get the start in goal for this contest.