Lightning at Flyers
Center Brayden Point hopes to follow up a historic performance with another big effort when his Tampa Bay Lightning visit the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday afternoon in a battle of teams with injured No. 1 goalies. The 22-year-old Point scored his first career hat trick Thursday in a span of 91 seconds bridging the first and second periods - all on power plays - as the Lightning rallied to defeat Pittsburgh 4-3 and end their first losing streak of the season at two.
Point’s hat trick was the sixth fastest in NHL history - second in the modern era (1967-68) - while it pushed his team-leading totals to 12 goals and 22 points before telling reporters: “That’s pretty cool. Obviously just a couple 5-on-3 situations, you’re going to get put out in those spots and guys found me.” Tampa Bay is without last season’s Vezina finalist Andrei Vasilevskiy for 4-to-6 weeks after he broke his foot at practice Wednesday while Philadelphia goalie Brian Elliott suffered an apparent groin injury in Thursday’s 3-0 loss to New Jersey and is likely to miss at least two weeks. The Flyers have managed one goal combined in two consecutive losses after a promising 5-0-1 stretch and are 2-for-32 on the power play over the past 11 contests. “We’re getting chances, we’re not scoring right now,” Philadelphia center Sean Couturier told reporters. “You go on some streaks like that where it’s tougher.”
TV: 1 p.m. ET, NHL Network, Sportsnet, FS Sun (Tampa Bay), NBCS Philadelphia
ABOUT THE LIGHTNING (13-5-1): Louis Domingue will get a big workload with Vasilevskiy out and the 26-year-old turned aside 28 shots in the win over Pittsburgh, giving up three goals or fewer for the fifth time in six starts this season. “I thought Louis made some big saves in the third, and we played a solid third period to limit their chances,” Tampa Bay captain Steven Stamkos told reporters. “It’s a good road win.” Right wing Nikita Kucherov helped set up Points goals on Thursday to go over 200 assists for his career (201) and give him 21 points on the season - second on the team.
ABOUT THE FLYERS (9-9-1): Left wing James van Riemsdyk, a major offseason free-agent signing, returned to the lineup Thursday after missing more than a month with a lower-body injury and had two shots in 16:59 of ice time. “You’re out for six weeks, especially at the start of the season, when you’ve been off already for three, four months, whatever it is, you’re definitely not as sharp as you’d like to be,” van Riemsdyk told reporters. “. … It’s just one of those things that’s a work in progress.” Cal Pickard (3-1-1, .865 save percentage) or Alex Lyon, who was recalled Friday, will replace Elliott in net.
OVERTIME
1. Philadelphia captain C Claude Giroux leads the team with 22 points and is one away from 700 for his career.
2. Tampa Bay D Anton Stralman (upper body) missed the last three games, but has been skating with the team.
3. Flyers D Radko Gudas (illness) was scratched Thursday and his status is uncertain for Saturday.