By Thomas Mangieri
TAMPA, Fla. — Thunder Alley was rocking before puck drop at Benchmark International Arena. Fans packed in front of Benchmark to experience the festivities of opening day with tents and activities, as well as live music performed by a local band, the Saints of Saturn.
People from all over Tampa came for the festivities and the game. Eli Boettner, who moved from Oregon to Tampa about five years ago, has been a passionate fan since and believes that the team has a strong future in one of their young stars.
“I think Geekie is probably my pick to break out this year. I think he looks good, and I think he’ll be the guy,” said Boettner.
The Lightning have a lot of promise this year in one of their young prospects, Conor Geekie, but with a lot of returning talent, the fans are happy to see staples of the franchise tear it up this year.
John Lum, who has watched this team from the start, living here in Tampa for the past 35 years, witnessing the first game at the “Ice Palace” (now “Benchmark International”) when it opened in 1996, said he’s excited about Guentzel and Kucherov, as they’ve been playing at a high level.
The Lightning also brought in crowds from overseas this past Thursday evening. Paul Millwaters, a South Tampa resident who moved here from England four years ago, introduced the game of hockey to his friend Gary Bonniei, who is visiting from England.
“Four-two lightning, what’s yours, Paul?” said Bonniei when asked for his final score prediction.
“Six-nil,” said Millwaters.
Fan energy was high going into the game, as the puck was set to drop at 7 p.m. The Lightning had some close calls in the first period, with a goal for the Ottawa Senators being overturned. However, the Lightning did not let that faze them, striking first on a power play just over six minutes into the game, with the first goal coming from Oliver Bjorkstrand.
The Lightning kept up the intensity, scoring again just over a minute later, this time coming from Brayden Point, who assisted the previous goal.
The Senators fired back with a goal of their own, coming from Dylan Cozens with over nine minutes to go in the first. The Lightning struck again as Kucherov scored not even four minutes later, adding to the lead and making it 3-1 Lightning at the end of the first period.
The second period was all Senators, scoring two goals, with one coming from Artem Zub and another coming from Shane Pinto to tie things up 3-3 at the end of the second period.
The third period was hard-fought, with both teams scoring in the final minutes. Claude Giroux scored for the Senators, and Kucherov scored again for the Lightning. The final score was 5-4 with the Lightning coming up just short of sending it into OT.
“To be honest, it was game one. I don’t know if our execution was there as that game went on. When you don’t execute, it makes you look kinda slow. I think that’s what kinda crept into our game — we just couldn’t connect two or three passes, and when you do that, you’re late in plays and it came back to bite us in the end,” said Lightning Head Coach Jon Cooper in a post-game conference.
The Lightning hope to straighten things out at home this Saturday against the New Jersey Devils.
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Photos courtesy of Thomas Mangieri.