Tampa Bay Lightning vs. Atlanta Thrashers
The Tampa Bay Lightning had their first win at Prospect Camp with a 5-1 victory over the Atlanta Thrashers.Tampa’s Jonathan Boutin was stellar in net stopping 30 of 31 shots on goal, with a good number being quality shots.
Free agent invitee Patrick Coulombe scored the first goal of the game and only goal for Atlanta at 15:34 of the first period slipping it just inside the post. Kris Deines and Evan Nielsen had the assists.
Dustin Johner scored his first of two goals for Tampa Bay at 12:32 of the second period with a slapshot over Michael Garnett’s left shoulder. Zbynek Hrdel had the assist.
Five minutes later Ryan Craig scored for Tampa Bay on the power play. Craig picked up Gerard Dicaire’s rebound and shot it in the left side of the net with Garnett still on the right for the original shot.
Blake Robson put the Lightning up 3-1 when he found the puck loose in the crease after Tyler Metcalfe’s shot had found its way out from under Garnett’s body at 13:41.
Jean-Francois Soucy put Evgeni Artukhin’s rebound over Garnett’s left shoulder at 16:07 with Garnett still on his knees from the original shot.
Atlanta pulled Garnett from net after Tampa Bay took a penalty with 3:14 left in the game.
A minute later Johner scored his second of the night after stealing the puck in Atlanta’s zone. Johner shot from the left faceoff dot easily putting the puck in the empty net giving the Lightning a 5-1 win over the Thrashers.
There were also three fights in the game. The first came with 42.8 seconds left in the first period between Stephen Baby and Nick Tarnasky. Both got a few punches in but it was a draw.
The second came at 12:32 of the second between Lane Manson and Mike Egener. Egener, who is 6’0″, didn’t have a chance against the 6’8″ Manson. Manson was able to hold Egener off with one hand and hand out blows to Egener’s head with the other. Egener tried his best but was not able to get in any good shots on Manson.
The third fight came at 14:29 of the second between Jay Rosehill and Danny Bois. Both were able to get some good punches in but it was another draw when the referees broke it up.
