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# Tampa BAE Lightning Game 68: First Time for Everything
- URL: https://www.bayareaexaminer.com/tampa-bae-lightning-game-68-first/
- Published: 2025-03-22T16:30:52.000Z
- Updated: 2025-03-22T16:30:52.000Z
- Description: The Road Trip Continues
- Author: Collin Sherwin
- Tags: #Migrated-1792597384348, #Import 2026-10-21 15:44

The Tampa Bay Lightning are back on the ice as they continue their Western Conference Road Trip against the ~~Arizona Coyotes~~ Utah Hockey Club. This will be the first match up of the season for the Bolts and their first ever time playing against the Clubbers in Utah.

It’s also the first time we get see our old friend turned part time chicken farmer, Mikhail Sergachev.

Utah is not having the best inaugural season. They’re 6th place in their own division and are very likely to miss the playoffs, but that’s pretty much been expected. While they were the Coyotes, they were badly mismanaged and never really stood a chance of competing, but new ownership has revitalized the team and I think they’ll right the ship eventually.

On the ice, Utah is 5-3-2 in their last 10\. They just beat the Sabres by a score of 5-2 after getting thumped by the Oilers 7-1 in their previous game. Overall, Utah is scoring 2.83 goals per game. In their last 10, they’ve managed to light up the score board and really beat their average by scoring 3 or more in seven of those ten games. Defensively, they’re giving up 2.96 goals a game. In their last 10, they’ve given up 3 or more goals five times. They’ve played 3 goalies, including former Lightning draft pick Connor Ingram, this year and the results have not been super great. They’ve averaged a save percentage of .901 between all of them.

Special Teams are pedestrian with a power play of 22.4% & PK at 80%—not terrible, but not overly impressive either. The one thing to note is that Utah LOVES taking penalties. They rank 5th in the NHL penalty minutes. They’ve taken 26 penalties in their last 10 games. In that stretch, only one game had them give up less than 2 power play opportunities.

By all metrics, this is a game that the Bolts have a really great chance of winning. Here’s how they do it:

- Score 1st - they are one of the best teams in the NHL at scoring first and if they get on the board early then they should be able to rattle Utah into taking more penalties which leads us to…
- Capitalize on Special Teams - The Bolts power play is ranked in the Top 5 of the league. They need to use that to their advantage. Utah is likely to give them, at least, 2 chances. Go 50% or better and this should be smooth sailing.
- Score 3 Goals: Utah’s magic number seems to 3 goals against. Once that happens, in most cases, it seems like the game completely tilts to the other team. Maybe they lose discipline? Maybe they get too loose? I don’t know as I haven’t watched a ton of Utah Hockey, but I think that is tonight’s target.

Working against the Bolts is a long travel trip with a weird puck drop of 5 PM EST which will be 3 PM locally in Salt Lake City. If the Bolts can overcome that and come out swinging, I like their chances.

I’ll be a little late to the party as I’m busy until about 6 PM, but I can’t wait to watch tonight. Should be a good one.

Go Bolts!

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