While the Tampa Bay Lightning have had a series of frustrating losses on the season, Saturday night’s 4-2 loss to the Calgary Flames didn’t feel like one. Sure, they kind of slept-walked through the first two periods and had another minor meltdown that led to multiple goals against, but considering they were at the end of a five-game western road trip that began with several players under the weather, their attempted comeback in the third period was encouraging.
Steven Stamkos and Brayden Point had the goals, for Point it was his first NHL goal in his hometown arena, while Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 22 of 26. The difference in the game came in when the Flames scored three times in four-and-a-half minutes in the second period to build a lead while Dan Vladar stopped 31 of 33.
Victor Hedman returned to the line-up and Austin Watson drew in for the first time in a few games in place of Alex Barré-Boulet.
First Period:
The Lightning looked like a team at the end of a long road trip that started off with several players battling the flu bug. It wasn’t so much their physical effort, but there seemed to be a mental fog that led to a plethora of bad passes. There wasn’t much continuity on their rushes through the neutral zone and more than one foray into the offensive zone ended with a turnover off of a pass to nowhere. Even The Captain had a case of the “who was that pass to” decisions as he blindly flipped a backhand off the boards into the middle of the ice and right to a Flames stick.
The good news is that Calgary couldn’t really take advantage of their mistakes. Vasilevskiy was strong on a couple of chances and Mikhail Sergachev made a nice stick check on Nazem Kadri to break up a one-on-one rush. Calgary did have more zone time than the Lightning, but spent a lot of it chipping the puck around the boards as the Lightning were solid in cutting off the middle of the ice.
The two teams combined for just 5 high-danger chances (and Calgary had a power play). Give the Bolts a little credit as they blocked 7 of the Flames 19 shot attempts.
Second Period:
The good news was that the Lightning played much better in the later half of the second period as they spent a few shifts cycling the puck around in the Calgary zone. The bad news is that they were down 3-0 by that point. Calgary woke up a little in the second period while the Bolts kept sleepwalking through the first ten minutes of the period or so.
It was most noticeable in the neutral zone as the Flames were getting the puck and immediately turning it into the Lightning zone while Tampa Bay was floundering through the zone with disconnected passing and turnovers. It was the turnovers that led to the goals, especially the first one.
The Lightning were able to clear the puck at first, but Rasmus Andersson snatched up a loose puck at the red line and immediately brought it into the zone. He threaded a pass to A.J. Greer who had split the defense. Greer snapped a wrister up and in the top corner over Vasilevskiy’s glove to open the scoring.
Four minutes later, Hedman lost a puck battle behind the net and the puck was worked back to the point. MacKenzie Weegar teed up a slapshot that Vasy was screened by not one, not two, but three players. Somehow the puck went through all of that and off the far post and in the net to double the lead.
The Bolts were officially on the back foot and Calgary worked a puck low-to-high to set up Yegor Sharangovich at the top of the left circle and he blasted it past Vasilevskiy. There was a lot of mustard on the shot, but Vasy had a clear look at it and one would think he would be the first to admit he should have stopped that one.
Down three the Bolts were able to get a little zone time, especially once Coach Cooper shuffled up the line. Still, though, there wasn’t a lot of danger on their shots that they threw at Vladar. They ended up with 9 shots, but just one high-danger chance in the middle frame.
Third Period:
Down three with 20 minutes to go the Lightning needed to get on their horses and get the puck in the net. Leave to the Kucherov/Point connection to get them on the board. A nice forecheck by the line caught the Flames out of sorts and Kucherov was able to feed the puck to Point in the slot who beat Vladar cleanly.
A few shifts later Michael Eyssimont put the puck into the net, but he did it by kind of pushing Vladar into the it along with the puck. That did not count. The officials had plenty of time to review it as Tanner Jeannot and Dennis Gilbert had a little scuffle after the play.
The goal and the fight were the spark that lit the Lightning offense it seemed as the Stamkos line flung some shots on Vladar and off the post. It didn’t go in, but they did draw a penalty. It didn’t take long for Steven Stamkos to bury a shot from his office to make it a one-goal game.
Dan Vladar didn’t have to make many big saves on the night, but he did make a key one on Erik Cernak a few minutes later as the big defenseman let one go from a dangerous spot. What made it key? Well, shortly after the save Connor Zary skated into the Lightning zone with Brandon Hagel draped on him and snapped a shot that beat Vasilevskiy between the body and the post, not something you see from The Big Cat very often.
Tampa Bay tried to claw their way back into it, but the Flames defense wasn’t letting it happen. Coach Cooper pulled Vasy with over three minutes to go, and despite a lot of zone time, they just couldn’t put it in the net. The horn finally sounded and the Bolts ended their road trip with a 4-2 loss.
The Lines
The Goals
A.J. Greer (Rasmus Andersson, Noah Hanifin) 1-0 Calgary
MacKenzie Weegar (Andrew Magiapane, Blake Coleman) 2-0 Calgary
Yegor Sharangovich (Jordan Oesterle, Elias Lindholm) Calgary 3-0
Brayden Point (Nikita Kucherov) 3-1 Flames
Steven Stamkos (Nikita Kucherov, Victor Hedman) Power Play, 3-2 Flames
Connor Zary (Jordan Oesterle) 4-2 Flames
