This won’t be a long recap. Yes, the Tampa Bay Lightning lost 3-1 to the New York Rangers to kick off the road trip. The bigger news was the injury to defenseman Mikhail Sergachev. The 25-year-old suffered a lower-body injury in the second period and had to be taken off of the ice on a stretcher following a collision along the boards with Alexis Lafreniere.
“You feel sick to your stomach,” said captain Steven Stamkos following the game. Sergachev was playing in his first game since the end of December as he rehabbed from another lower-body injury following a blocked Colton Parayko shot in a game against St. Louis. At this time the extend of his injury is unknown. While we may not get full details on what exactly the injury is, we should know soon how long he might be out and how that will affect the Lightning’s plans heading into the trade deadline.
As for the game itself, the Lightning played fairly well in the first period, had some issues in the second period that turned into goals against and couldn’t quite complete the comeback in the third period despite a goal by Brandon Hagel that brought them close. The Rangers were able to tack on an empty-net goal to make the final 3-1.
Andrei Vasilevskiy finished the night with 21 saves on 23 shots, but probably would like the first goal he allowed back. Jimmy Vesey attacked down the right hand side of the ice and it looked like Vasy was anticipating a centering feed as he left a lot of room on the short side. Still, it took a heck of a shot from Vesey on the backhand to roof it under the bar.
Jimmy Vesey (Barclay Goodrow, Tyler Pitlick) 1-0 Rangers
Coach Cooper felt that perhaps his team tired a bit after their long layoff and allowed the Rangers to take control of the game. That did seem to be the case as New York posted 80.68% of the expected goal share in the middle frame and out-chanced the Lightning 9-4 (although they were aided by 3:17 of power play time). Jonny Brodzinski doubled the lead with less than three minutes to go in the period. His one-timer from the right circle got through Vasilevskiy, who didn’t seem set for the shot. More disappointing was the fact that the Lightning lost the board battle prior to the shot as Chris Kreider outworked two Bolts and set up Brodzinski for the shot.
Jonny Brodzinski (Chris Kreider, Blake Wheeler) 2-0 Rangers
Down by two goals and short a defenseman, the Lightning did try to rally in the third period. They put 10 shots on Jonathan Quick, who finished the night with 19 saves and picked up his third win in a row. Unfortunately, the only Bolt that could beat him was Brandon Hagel, who scored his 17th goal of the season at the 5:29 mark.
Brandon Hagel (Erik Cernak, Nikita Kucherov) 2-1 Rangers
The Lightning had some late chances to tie it, but Victor Hedman rang one off of the post and Alex Barre-Boulet missed a chance. Vesey ended their dreams of a comeback with an empty-netter with 1:01 left in the game. Old friend Barclay Goodrow picked up his second assist of the night and Vincent Trocheck had the other.
The loss drops the Lightning to 10-14-2 on the road and snapped their three-game winning streak. Their loss, coupled with the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-4 comeback win over the Dallas Stars allowed the Leafs to leapfrog them in the standings. The good news is that the Bolts will be right back out their with a chance to jump back up as they take on the New York Islanders on Thursday.
