Once Upon A Time In Las Vegas – Wildcard Edition
It’s an interconference battle on the ice when a pair of teams do battle in search of two points in the Gateway City. The Tampa Bay Lightning are on the road as they make the trip to face the St. Louis Blues Saturday night. Tampa Bay comes in off a 5-4 home win over Vancouver in their previous game Thursday night. St. Louis ended up splitting a two-game set at home with the Flames as they were dumped 4-1 Thursday night. In the last 10 meetings between the teams, the teams have split the contests, though the Lightning have a 5-3-2 edge when it comes to points earned. That includes a 5-2 home win in the first meeting this season on November 25, 2022.
I just won $14,619 in parlay tickets in the month of November and hit a 47-1 parlay to kick off the New Year. Don't miss out on another big payday! Click here to get a month of my parlays for only $50 (normally $100)!
Tampa Bay won their second straight and their sixth in the last eight games as they held off Vancouver in their last game. The Lightning entered Friday night third in the Atlantic Division with a 26-13-1 record, leaving them 15 points behind the Bruins for the top spot. They were 10 points ahead of Detroit for the final guaranteed playoff spot. Tampa Bay went into Friday 4th in the league in goals per game as they average 3.58 goals per contest. The Lightning stands 15th in goals against by allowing 2.95 goals per game. Tampa Bay is 2nd with the man advantage as they cash in on 28.9% of their chances with the man advantage this season. The Lightning are 11th in penalty killing as they successfully work through 80.9% of their shorthanded situations on the year.
Against Vancouver, Tampa Bay’s offense was clicking and did just enough to hold on to the win as their defensive zone play wilted late. The Lightning were outshot 15-11 in the opening period but went to the dressing room tied at one at the first intermission. After falling behind 1-0 early, Corey Perry tied the game with his sixth goal of the season, on the power play, at 14:37 off assists from Mikhail Sergachev and Ross Colton. In the second period, Tampa Bay held an 11-10 shot edge and outscored Vancouver 3-1 to take a 4-2 lead after 40 minutes. Alex Killorn gave the Lightning a 2-1 lead with his 13th goal of the season at 2:30 off assists from Nick Perbix and Brandon Hagel. After Vancouver tied the game, Nikita Kucherov gave Tampa Bay a 3-2 lead with his 17th goal of the season at 15:44 off assists from Steven Stamkos and Brayden Point. Hagel extended to a 4-2 Lightning advantage with his 16th goal of the year at 19:29 with Killorn and Perbix drawing the assists. In the third period, Tampa Bay was outshot 15-13 and outscored 2-1 yet he ld on for the victory. Stamkos made it 5-2 with his 18th goal of the year, on the power play, at 5:30 off assists from Point and Kucherov. The Lightning gave up a pair of goals in the final six minutes but managed to hang on for the win. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 36 saves for Tampa Bay, who was outshot 40-35, in the contest. He’s likely to be between the pipes again here.