Game 46: Tampa Bay Lightning at Dallas Stars
The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Dallas Stars 2-1.
Teddy Purcell had his best game of the season. He scored the first goal in the first period on his sixth shot of the game. Then he scored the second goal of the third period - after the Stars had tied things up - on his seventh shot of the game. Martin St. Louis assisted on both of his goals.
The Lightning had some out strong in the first, as they had in the previous couple of games, which has been a nice change. That's definitely been helping them in terms of overall play as well as the score at the end of the game. Their second period, as it has been all season long, was not great. They looked tired, sloppy, and were quite frankly lucky to get out of the second period still ahead in the game.
There was a scary moment in the second period when Steven Stamkos had been shoved into goaltender Mathieu Garon. It had looked like Garon might have hurt his shoulder/collarbone area and may have needed to come out of the game. Thankfully, he was able to shake it off and finish the game. And hopefully, that doesn't turn into an 'upper body' injury later on.
The first half of the third period was more of the same as the second - not exactly the most stellar play that the Lightning have shown. Tom Wandell scored less than 1:30 into the third, and was answered a little over two minutes later by Purcell. Even still, the Lightning didn't really pull things together again in regards to their play until later in the period.
The Lightning's next game is tonight at the Phoenix Coyotes. They will likely be facing a familiar face in net, as Mike Smith is having a great year in the Desert. Game time is at 8 pm ET. The Raw Charge game thread will open at 7:30 pm, for those who would like to say hi and hang out with us.
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