Goals are rarely scored from shots taken in the neutral zone. What happens in that zone may determine whether a team scores, but the puck is almost never deposited from the middle of the ice. Still, to view it as a rest stop on the way to the destination understates its value. Last night’s 5-4 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes provided prime examples.

The Hurricanes are first in the NHL in Corsi Plus-Minus. They may lack the Lightning’s talent, but they have positioned themselves as a possible Eastern Conference Wild Card team by thriving below the circles. Quick breakouts and an unflagging forecheck help Carolina neutralize a skill disparity when pitted against top-tier franchises.

The game made for wildly entertaining hockey as Tampa Bay was loathe to chip and chase. Instead, the Lightning players carried the puck into the offensive zone with brio, their blueprint for victory seemingly based on the vulnerability of the Hurricanes’ defensemen at keeping a tight gap. Therefore, the imagination of individual Lightning skaters was left unencumbered. Entry in the offensive zone was easily accessed, and the scoring possibilities germinated. The Lightning’s goals demonstrated different manifestations of a game plan that was determined not to let the Hurricanes settle into a structured breakout or forecheck.

The first goal scored by the Lightning came off a Steven Stamkos faceoff win. Tampa Bay defenseman Jake Dotchin tossed the puck immediately off the glass to clear the offensive zone. It is a bit counterintuitive that to thwart the Hurricanes’ territorial dominance Dotchin would cede the puck, but the game plan was to keep the puck away from that area below the dots. So following that logic, the puck departed the zone without a direct recipient.

With Hurricanes defenseman Justin Faulk retrieving and Chris Kunitz in pursuit, the bet was that the Lightning would assert more pressure on the re-entry and possibly force a turnover, which could lead to a transition opportunity the other way. The wager was rewarded. Faulk’s pass to his teammate at the blue line was met by Victor Hedman, who stepped up to prevent a clean carry into the offensive zone.

The Hedman confrontation triggered a turnover, and Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov scooped up the puck in Tampa Bay’s defensive zone. In a flash, the Hurricanes’ offensive-zone attack was dispelled.

Kucherov passed the puck back to Dotchin, who caromed an indirect pass off the boards to Stamkos. Stamkos had retreated back toward the Lightning net to receive the pass, and once Kucherov discarded the puck, he started his momentum forward. Kucherov offered a passing target for Stamkos, Kucherov received the pass, and sailed through the neutral zone. After he crossed the blue line of the offensive zone, Kucherov broke toward the high slot around ten feet deep, and left a drop-pass for his trailer Hedman. A high-IQ player, Kucherov shrewdly continued forward and pushed back the two Hurricanes skaters in an effort to create more shooting room for Hedman. Hedman snatched up the pass and in stride snapped a shot off the goaltender’s glove, which caromed off the post and into the net.

The Lightning’s third goal evidenced more victimizing of the opponent in the neutral zone. Brayden Point intercepted a pass and started a counterattack. In the first period, he blazed past the Hurricanes’ defensemen off a pass from Tyler Johnson and created a breakaway for himself that was stopped by goaltender Cam Ward. In this instance, he accelerated past the left hash mark, and passed the puck back to Dotchin, who had jumped to the top of the left circle. (Dotchin would make good on the oodles of second-wave opportunities created by the forwards later in the game.) Dotchin fired on net, and Johnson, who was sitting on the backdoor, scored off his own rebound in an acrobatic dive.

What is important here is how the neutral zone was exploited, and yet the process was achieved differently. Hedman’s goal was a neutral-zone regroup; the Johnson goal was an intercepted pass and counterattack. Even though Hedman is a defenseman, the first goal was a strike from the first wave of Lightning skaters, while the Johnson goal made use of the second layer of Lightning skaters. And when Tampa Bay does exploit that high-low proposition, almost always they have a skater hugging the backdoor for the subsequent rebound. Kucherov found Stamkos for a high-low shot earlier in the game, and Hedman had dipped to the far post and almost blasted a shot into the net.

The goal that gave the Lightning a 4-3 lead also derived from the Lightning taking advantage of the middle of the ice. Hurricanes forward Jeff Skinner beat Dotchin on a one-on-one, and the Lightning recovered the puck deep in their own zone. And then the sea seemed to part.

Hedman slipped a short pass to Ondrej Palat, who effortlessly forded the neutral zone. Palat carried the puck from the far blue line to the top of the right circle in the attacking zone before passing it to Point as a trailer, who tossed it backward to the last Lightning skater into the zone, Dotchin. Dotchin buried the opportunity from the top of the left circle. It was a moment of redemption for Dotchin, but also another instance of the Lightning preying on the weakness of a feisty opponent.

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