TAMPA, Fla. — Brayden Point entered the Lightning’s final regular-season game one goal shy of 50, and his teammates wanted to get him the milestone Thursday night against the Red Wings at Amalie Arena.
As for Point, he was more concerned about the team entering the postseason on a positive note.
“If it happens, it happens,” he said before the game. “If it doesn’t, it wasn’t meant to be. So, just worried about playing a solid game, and it could get a bit of a stretch here where we haven’t been playing great. That’s just the focus, really.”
He got both, becoming the third player in franchise history to score 50 goals in a season as the Lightning snapped their four-game losing streak with a 5-0 win over the Red Wings in their final tuneup before next week’s first-round rematch against the Maple Leafs.
It didn’t look like Point would reach the mark until the Lightning center scored with 9:13 remaining, jumping on a rebound of a Nikita Kucherov shot in front, waiting for Ville Husso to drop to the ice and tucking the puck behind the Detroit goaltender inside the right post.
As the celebration drifted into the corner, Lightning captain Steven Stamos rushed into the net to grab the puck and the crowd gave Point a standing ovation.
Point added an empty-net goal with just over four minutes remaining, giving him 51 for the season.
The Lightning’s lineup wasn’t representative of the one they’ll send onto the ice next week in Toronto. Backup goaltender Brian Elliott made his third start in the final four games, giving Andrei Vasilevskiy extra rest going into the playoffs. Two of Tampa Bay’s top defensemen, Victor Hedman and Erik Cernak, both sat out, seemingly to rest up.
Detroit didn’t allow much, and a Red Wings team not heading to the postseason was determined to not let Point hurt it.
Point became the third Lightning player to score 50 goals. Stamkos did it twice, Vincent Lecavalier once.
Point almost scored No. 50 earlier in the third, as Alex Killorn made a centering pass to Point just outside the crease, but Point couldn’t keep the puck on his stick in traffic. Instead, Brandon Hagel jumped on the loose puck and wristed a shot past Husso to put the Lightning up 2-0 at 7:27 of the period.
Killorn opened the scoring just under eight minutes into the game with his 27th goal of the season, setting a new career high.
Killorn’s goal was a result of his line staying on the attack in the offensive zone. After feeding Anthony Cirelli for a shot in front, Killorn got the puck back in the corner. He passed to Cirelli, who dropped the puck back to Killorn in the left circle for a shot that beat Husso.
Mikey Eyssimont scored his first goal with the Lightning with 10 seconds remaining.
Elliott rebounded from allowing six goals in each of his previous three starts, recording a 32-save shutout.
The 38-year-old goaltender’s future is unclear. He’s an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season. His 6-year-old son, Owen, took the ice with him for the national anthem.
The Lightning ended the regular season with 98 points (46-30-6), good for third place in the Atlantic Division, and were 28-8-5 at home.
Their first-round series against the Leafs likely will take place Tuesday in Toronto, but the league has yet to announce the playoff schedules.
