The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Vancouver Canucks 4-2 on Saturday at Benchmark International Arena, erasing a two-goal deficit with three unanswered goals. Nikita Kucherov scored twice in the second period to spark the comeback, and Jake Guentzel and Pontus Holmberg added third-period goals to seal it.
Vancouver led 2-0 after goals from Linus Karlsson and Elias Pettersson, but Tampa Bay outshot the Canucks 35-14 and dominated the faceoff circle, winning 62.3% of draws. The Lightning moved to 6-2 and Vancouver fell to 2-7-1.
Key Moments: How The Lightning Rallied
Karlsson opened the scoring at 15:32 of the first period with a slap shot, assisted by Paul Cotter and Filip Chytil. Pettersson extended the lead to 2-0 just 4:35 into the second period on a wrist shot set up by Jonathan Lekkerimaki and Brock Boeser.
Tampa Bay answered quickly. Kucherov cut the deficit to 2-1 at 6:30 with a wrist shot assisted by Brandon Hagel and Guentzel, then tied it 2-2 at 11:23 with a snap shot off a feed from Brayden Point. The Lightning never trailed again.
Guentzel put Tampa Bay ahead for good at 2:04 of the third period, scoring on a slap shot assisted by Charle-Edouard D’Astous and Point. Holmberg capped the scoring at 15:57 with an unassisted wrist shot, making it 4-2.
Top Performers
Kucherov led all scorers with two goals on the night. Point recorded two assists, setting up both the tying and go-ahead goals. Guentzel finished with a goal and an assist.
Dennis Hildeby stopped 12 of 14 shots for a .857 save percentage. Kevin Lankinen made 31 saves on 35 shots for a .886 mark.
For Vancouver, Karlsson, Chytil and Pettersson each factored into the scoring, with Chytil and Boeser each picking up an assist. Filip Hronek led Vancouver skaters with five blocked shots despite finishing a minus-3.
What It Means
Tampa Bay tied Boston and Ottawa with 12 points atop the Atlantic Division. The Lightning won the season series opener 1-0.
Vancouver sits at the bottom of the Pacific Division with five points through 10 games. The Canucks went 1-for-2 on the power play while Tampa Bay was 1-for-1.
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