NHL Game Recap: Lightning Moves Past Sharks Easily, Defeating Them 8-1

On Thursday, December 5th, the Lightning dominated the Sharks in Tampa Bay at Amalie Arena when they defeated them 8-1. Tampa Bay easily defeated San Jose, scoring five goals against them and Vitek Vanecek in the first period. Brandon Hagel scored twice, and Cam Atkinson, Conor Geekie, Jake Guentzel, Anthony Cirelli, Nick Perbix, and Nick Paul each scored for the Lightning to help secure this huge victory. To keep from getting shutout, Alex Wennberg scored the lone goal for the Sharks. Macklin Celebrini, the No. 1 pick in the 2024 NHL Draft, unfortunately, had his five-game point streak put to an end. The Sharks head to Amerant Bank Arena on Saturday to take on the Florida Panthers, and the Lightning will be starting their road trip, their first stop is Vancouver on Sunday to take on the Canucks.

Tampa Bay Lightning Lineup:

Guentzel – Point

Hagel – Cirelli – Paul

Goncalves – Geekie – Atkinson

Girgensons – Glendening – Eyssimont

Hedman – Moser

McDonagh – Cernak

Lilleberg – Perbix

Raddysh

Vasilevskiy

Johansson

San Jose Sharks Lineup:

Eklund – Celebrini – Zetterlund

Kunin – Wennberg – Toffoli

Kostin – Granlund – Smith

Grundstrom – Sturm – Dellandrea

Walman – Ceci

Ferraro – Liljegren

Thrun – Rutta

Vanecek

Blackwood

  To kick things off early into the first period, Cam Atkinson scored his third goal of the season when he redirected a shot by Conor Geekie past Vitek Vanecek for the early 1-0 lead at 18:34. Geekie carried the puck into the Sharks’ zone, his initial shot failing to make it in, bouncing out, and he got ahold of the puck once again, shooting from down near the blue line, and Atkinson redirected it, finding the back of the net. Geekie struck his fourth of the season with 12:31 on the clock in the opening frame when he fired from the left face-off circle, beating Vanecek to the far post to make it 2-0. Soon after the second Bolts tally at 11:28, Brandon Hagel extended Tampa Bay’s lead to 3-0 when he collected a loose puck down low, waited out Vanecek, and then scored at the right post… Hagel struck again at 11:05, pushing it to 4-0 for his second of the night, as well as their second in 23 seconds. He got ahold of the puck in the neutral zone and carried it into San Jose’s zone as he drove to the net, scoring with a backhand around Vanecek’s left skate. With 2:15 remaining in the opening 20, Jake Guentzel tipped it in off a pass from Victor Hedman in the low slot to make it to 5-0 on the power play after Hedman’s original shot didn’t find the back of the net.

   Anthony Cirelli picked up his 11th of the season and the sixth Lightning goal of the night at 15:44 of the second when he redirected a snap shot from Ryan McDonagh that had ended up going in off Mackenzie Blackwood’s skate. Increasing Tampa Bay’s lead to 7-0, Nick Perbix added the seventh tally late in the middle frame with 1:28 on the clock. Brayden Point shook off two defensemen along the boards, sending the puck to Perbix, who struck on a wrister from the high slot.

   Alex Wennberg cut it to 7-1 quick into the third, only 14 seconds in, to prevent the Sharks from getting shutout with his seventh goal of the season. He scored on the forehand after receiving a pass from Fabian Zetterlund, who was near the blue line before Tampa Bay’s zone and took a pass from Jan Rutta, who sent it down to him from in San Jose’s zone, and Zetterlund sent it to Wennberg for the one and only Sharks goal. At 13:59 of the third period, Nick Paul decided to add an extra goal to the board for the 8-1 final when Brayden Point fed him in the low slot.

Cam Atkinson on the early success for him and his linemates/if it helped set the tone for the game, continuing the same habits through the rest of the game after the first period, scoring goals/where his game is at, and his role/contributing: “Yeah, we talked about it before the game that we got to get to dirty areas to hopefully get a tip, get some rebounds, and it’s nice to obviously score in your first shift – We knew that they were obviously going to push, and if we continue to do the right things and stick to our structure, we’re going to get some opportunities. I thought we did a good job of that,” – “I’ve always been a streaking goal scorer, and I got to get to the dirty areas – that’s where I score all of my goals for the most part. Confidence is going well right now, and I’m playing with some good linemates, and getting some good opportunities. …I knew my role coming in, and as a player, you always want to contribute and do the best you can. I know I can contribute, so I just have to stay positive and be a good teammate, and that’s what I’m here for. I lead the way whenever I’m on the ice and do the best I can.”

Mario Ferraro on the loss, if this was deflating considering their past games, and issues with defense/what they could’ve done better: “It’s not a great start… We just didn’t play our identity tonight at all. We kind of took our foot off the gas on a lot of little things that have allowed us to have some success here. It just wasn’t our new brand of Sharks Hockey tonight – I’m not deflated. You know, it’s an 82-game season, we got another game in a couple of days, and another opportunity to play a really good hockey team and surprise them. So, no, it’s not deflating, but it’s definitely not something that we’re accepting of, so we got to be better,” – “There’s a lot of things. Obviously, the score – we let in too many goals tonight, so I think we didn’t do a good enough job boxing out in front of the net, myself included. We got to be more hard to play against down there… I felt like in the past or in games where maybe the other team has had a lot of o-zone time, I feel like most of it, the chances we gave up were grade A’s from shots from the point. So, it has a lot to do with our box outs, and then when we recover the puck to be able to get the puck out and get some fresh legs on the ice. So, we got to clean that up.”

Notes:

– Andrei Vasilevskiy made a total of 20 saves for Tampa Bay, and before Mackenzie Blackwood took his place in net, who made 20 saves for San Jose, Vitek Vanecek allowed five goals on 12 shots.

– Brayden Point picked up four assists… Cam Atkinson, Conor Geekie, and Jake Guentzel each recorded a goal and an assist. Victor Hedman and Ryan McDonagh both picked up a pair of assists.

– Point played in his 600th NHL career game, and has nine points in his past five (five goals, four assists). …Atkinson has scored a goal in each of his past two games straight. …Brandon Hagel has 14 points in his past seven; four goals, 10 assists.

– The Lightning has scored 8 goals three times in a season for the first time in their history… 8-2 against the Colorado Avalanche on November 25th, and 8-5 against the New Jersey Devils on October 22nd. …They also scored the second-fastest four goals to start a game in their history, the first on November 14th, 2019 against the New York Rangers, 9-3 in 6:42.

– The Sharks three-game winning streak had been put to an end. …8-5 against the Seattle Kraken on November 29th, 4-2 against the Kraken on November 30th, and 2-1 against the Washington Capitals on December 3rd.

– Macklin Celebrini had a total of seven shot attempts, four shots on goal, and had been 6-for-11 on face-offs (55%).