Lightning Round: Both Lightning affiliates suffered losses on Friday night

While the Tampa Bay Lightning had a day off after an overtime loss on Thursday in Toronto, both of their affiliates had a game on Friday night. Both games had different scenarios, but still ended with the same disappointing result.

The Syracuse Crunch played their second game of the season against the Utica Comets yesterday. The first game ended with a 1-2 loss, so the Crunch hoped to take revenge on their opponent in this game. A three-game winning streak also gave them some additional confidence.

The game itself, however, didn’t go as planned. While the Crunch managed to finish the first period with a tied score, the second period turned into a nightmare. The Crunch allowed three goals in a span of three minutes in the middle of period. Charles Hudon cut the Comets’ lead to two goals, but in less than half a minute, they quickly returned to a three-goal lead. The Crunch scored a goal early in the third period, but couldn’t complete a comeback and eventually fell to the Comets 6-3.

The Crunch outshoot their opponent 43-27, but the Comets were much more lucky in the finishing phase. Apart from Charles Hudon, Gage Goncalves and Gabriel Dumont scored a goal for Syracuse. Hugo Alnefelt made 21 saves on 27 shots in net for the Crunch.

Tonight the Syracuse Crunch host the Laval Rocket.

The Orlando Solar Bears started their game against the Norfolk Admirals more confidently than the Crunch. The Solar Bears were leading 4-1 after the first period, but unfortunately couldn’t maintain their lead. The Admirals scored three goals in the second period, cutting the Solar Bears lead to one goal. They added another goal in the third period and eventually pulled out a victory in overtime, when the Solar Bears scoring leader Aaron Luchuk was sent to the penalty box and Darien Craighead scored a gamewinning goal for Norfolk on power play.

Lightning Links

Mikhail Sergachev was suspended for two games for an illegal check to the head on Mitch Marner in Thursday’s game against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Geo summarized his thoughts on the first ten Lightning’s games of the season in his yesterday’s article [Raw Charge]

The Tampa Bay Lightning entered the 2021-22 NHL season as back-to-back Stanley Cup Champions. They also entered with a lot of question marks, especially in the bottom six. A lot of familiar faces left during the off season and a lot of new ones joined the team. Figuring out how all of those players were going to fit into the line up was going to take some time. But what have we learned about the Lightning from these first ten games?

The Lightning recalled defenceman Fredrik Claesson from the Syracuse Crunch, who will serve as a seventh defenceman while Mikhail Sergachev will be out due to suspension.

Hockey News

The AHL revealed the name of the Seattle Kraken affiliate, who will enter the league in the next season.

The Calgary Flames’ Matthew Tkachuk was also penalized for high-sticking the Dallas Stars’ John Klingberg.

The full results of the previous gameday:

Connor McDavid with one of the best goals of the season.