As has been the case during this homestand, the Tampa Bay Lightning found themselves trailing in Wednesday night’s game against the Winnipeg Jet. Like they did against Edmonton and Boston, the Lightning fought back, but unfortunately could not find the winning goal as Adam Lowry scored 1:39 into overtime to give the Jets the victory.
Steven Stamkos and Brayden Point scored for the Bolts while Jonas Johansson stopped 29 of 32 shots. Josh Morrissey and Mark Scheifele scored first period goals to put the Jets up 2-0 in the first period, before the Lightning managed to tie it. Connor Hellebuyck stopped 29 of 31.
As Coach Cooper mentioned in his post-game interview, this was a battle between two pretty good teams and it’s just unfortunate that the Lightning came out on the losing end. They carried the play for most of the night, but faded a bit in the third. Could it have been a little fatigue from having to come from behind the last couple of games? Possibly, but it’s also having to play against a pretty good team that can roll three tough lines all night long.
In regards to the overtime goal. It’s kind of a shame because for 90% of the play they did the right thing. Hedman had his pass picked off in the offensive zone, but Point did a really good job of forcing old friend Vlad Namestnikov wide and into the boards which created a loose puck. Things went wonky a bit from there as both Point and Victor Hedman’s momentum carried them away from the puck, and when they circled back around, they both focused on Neal Pionk instead of one of them trying to cover Lowry who had drifted off to the far post and had a pretty wide open net to shoot at once Pionk got the pass past Anthony Cirelli.
The other goals allowed were a little tough to take as well. Hellebuyck stoned Brandon Hagel on a breakaway and then shortly after Nick Paul made the play to break up a cross-ice pass, but can’t get it out of the zone. The Jets keep it in and Johansson kicked out Dylan Demelo’s big shot from the top of the circles, but the rebound went right to Morrissey who dunked it home.
The second goal was a deflected shot from the point. Again not much the goaltender can do on that one.
It was a nice response by the Lightning and for the 198th time on the power play Steven Stamkos found the back of the net. Every time he scores from his office, the thought of “he can’t keep getting away with this” arises, yet he does. Needless to say, it was set up by yet another sublime pass from Nikita Kucherov.
Then, in the second period, Brayden Point, who it has been confirmed, does indeed have that dog in him followed up a golden chance that Hellebuyck somehow kept out with a bar-down, short-side goal from in tight. Useful, very useful.
For the most part it was a solid night for the Bolts. They picked up a point to run their streak to four games with at least one, finished the homes stand with five out of six points, and in the eyes of their coach, are better than they were the week before. The team is improving and hopefully they keep the positive vibes going out on the road as they take on the Hurricanes yet again.
The Goals
Josh Morrissey (Dylan DeMelo, Nikolaj Ehlers) 1-0 Jets
Mark Scheifele (Josh Morrissey, Cole Perfetti) Power Play, 2-0 Jets
Steven Stamkos (Nikita Kucherov, Victor Hedman) Power Play, 2-1 Jets
Brayden Point (Brandon Hagel) 2-2
Adam Lowry (Neal Pionk, Vlad Namestnikov) 3-2 Jets
