The good news is that no more members of the Tampa Bay Lightning defense were injured in their 4-2 loss to the Winnipeg Jets. Down to just five defensemen due to injuries to Mikhail Sergachev (who left the morning skate early), Haydn Fleury, and Erik Cernak they gave a valiant effort, but made a few too many mistakes in the middle period as they saw a 1-0 lead turn into a 2-1 deficit.
The Lightning, who iced 13 forwards in the game to offset their shortage on defense, got off to an ideal start as they were able to carry most of the action and avoided long, tiring shifts in their own zone. Turnovers were kept to a minimum and they stayed out of the penalty box. Despite their limited defensive options they held the Jets to just 7 shots and 3 high-danger chances. Most importantly they took advantage when they had the man-advantage.
On the power play early in the period, Steven Stamkos did what Steven Stamkos has done all throughout his career – cannoned a shot from his office into the back of the net.
Steven Stamkos (Victor Hedman, Nikita Kucherov) Power Play, 1-0 Lightning
Not having to chase the game early allowed the Lightning to stay in their rotations and play the style of game they needed to against a very patient Winnipeg squad. The Jets did start to apply pressure towards the end of the period and the Lightning were caught in their own zone for a bit. With 18 seconds left they took an unfortunate delay of game penalty.
While they made it to the break unscathed, they started the second period on the backfoot, having to kill of the power play (which they did) took some effort. The Jets found their legs in the second period and their forecheck gave the Bolts a little more issues than they did in the first. It led to Neal Pionk tying the game on a high-slot deflection.
Neal Pionk (Brenden Dillon, Morgan Barron) 1-1
Five minutes later the Jets were able to grind out a long shift in the Lightning’s zone. While the Bolts did a decent job of keeping things to the outside, they weren’t able to gain possession of the puck and clear. A shot from Cole Perfetti was blocked by Tanner Jeannot, but the loose puck went right to Alex Iafallo who put it up and over Andrei Vasilevskiy who had dropped into the butterfly for Perfetti’s shot.
Alex Iafallo (Cole Perfetti, Vlad Namestnikov) 2-1 Jets
This was the situation the Lightning were hoping to avoid. Not only because it meant they had to exert more energy to try and create offense, but also because Winnipeg is a really, really good defensive team. Entering the game they had allowed two or fewer regulation goals in 13 straight games. The last time they gave up three regulation goals was November 30th against Edmonton, and one of those goals was an empty-netter by the Oilers. You have to go all the way back to November 26th, a 3-2 loss to Nashville, to find a game where they gave up three legitimate goals.
So, the Lightning had their work cut out for them over the last half of the game. Some credit does go to them for playing a spirited game. They outshot (14-8) and outchanced (15-11) Winnipeg in that period, they just didn’t get the bounces and Connor Hellebuyck was solid in net.
In the third, mistakes started piling up for the Lightning. They took two penalties, and while they did kill them off, not only did it bleed time off of the clock, it sapped energy from them as well. With about five minutes to go, an unfortunate mistake led to the eventual game-winning goal.
Winnipeg shot the puck in on Vasilevskiy. It looked like he wanted to throw the puck back into the neutral zone, but Philippe Myers flashed through his passing lane. Vasy double-clutched and eventually threw the puck into old friend Vlad Namestnikov, who worked the puck over to Nikolaj Ehlers who put it into the back of the net.
Nikolaj Ehlers (Vlad Namestnikov) 3-1 Jets
The game was all but over with just under five minutes to play. Even more so when Morgan Barron put it into an empty net at the 17:53 mark (Namestnikov picked up his third assist on the play). The Bolts did get one back late as Nikita Kucherov put a shot off of Hellebuyck’s pad and in with the Lightning on a late power play.
Nikita Kucherov (Victor Hedman, Brayden Point) Power Play, 4-2 Jets
Kucherov added two more points to his league-leading total while Victor Hedman had two assists in his 29:14 of ice time. Vasilevskiy finished with 24 saves on 27 shots while Hellebuyck stopped 32 of 34 to take the first star of the game.
The Lightning are back on the ice on Thursday against the Minnesota Wild. Hopefully they will have full compliment of defensemen for the game.
