The Tampa Bay Lightning haven’t been a perfect team this year, but for all of their faults they have been a pretty good third period team. They’ve been especially good with the lead, bringing a 35-1-1 record when leading after two periods into their game against the Buffalo Sabres. Despite going into the final frame with a 2-1 lead, that record dropped to 35-1-2 as Jason Zucker tied it with a power play goal in the third, and Buffalo scored twice a in the shootout to pick up the 3-2 victory.
For one of the few times this season, the Lightning looked tired on the ice, especially in the third period. Perhaps the long run of playing with just eleven forwards is starting to wear on the skaters as they weren’t sharp as a unit. Tired teams tend to make mistakes, and it seemed like the Lightning made more than their fair share late in the game. The offense lacked cohesion at times and defensive coverage just wasn’t there.
That being said, it was competitive for much of the night, and the Lightning did a really good job of halting one of the league’s hottest offenses. A lot of that rests on the padded shoulders of Jonas Johansson. The Lightning’s back-up netminder had another stellar game, stopping 36 of 38 shots on the night, including a brilliant save on Jack Quinn with just over a minute to go in the game to help the Bolts secure the game.
Perhaps there was a little bit of a lack of focus to start the game as the Lightning had already learned their playoff fate prior to the drop of the puck. Combine that with Buffalo’s quick, heavy forecheck-style that has always given the Bolts fits and it’s not a surprise that the visitors were on the back foot for the opening twenty minutes.
Tampa Bay only mustered two shots on goal in the first period off of 14 shot attempts.Buffalo stunted their attack by clogging up the neutral zone and the Lightning’s attempt to crack that with long stretch passes wasn’t successful. When they did have the puck in the zone, their shots were blocked (Buffalo had 7 blocks in the first period) or forced wide. The positive was that Buffalo wasn’t doing much better with the puck when they had it.
In the second period, the Lightning came out strong, and equaled their first period shot totals within the first 30 seconds. They eventually cracked through on a bit of a busted play. Off of a face-off, Nikita Kucherov had his shot blocked, but the puck found its way to Bryaden Point who beat James Reimer on the near post.
A lack of focus a few minutes later led to the equalizer. Nick Perbix had the puck in his own zone and looked up to survey his options. Zach Benson took the opportunity to pick the puck off of his stick and centered it to Tage Thompson who doesn’t miss from the slot. Tampa Bay kept generating chances in the second period, and it was the third line that gave them the lead that would eventually evaporate. A solid forecheck by Yanni Gourde led to Oliver Bjorkstrand feeding the puck to Gage Goncalves. Much like Thompson, Goncavles snapped a quick wrister past Reimer for the 2-1 lead.
Then came the third period. Buffalo pushed the play for much of the period with the Lightning only generating five shots on Reimer (although a few were quality and he made some superb saves). With Goncalves in the box, the Sabres were able to find the equalizer when Jason Zucker stuffed a second chance under Johansson’s pads.
JoJo was sharp in the bonus session as was Reimer as the two teams had a bit of a throwback overtime by combining for eight shots (Buffalo was credited with six scoring chances in the five-minute session). Neither team was able to score, though, and it went to the skills session where Quinn and Alex Tuch managed to score and Reimer shut the door on Jake Guentzel and Brayden Point.
The Lightning did put another point between them and Florida, who lost earlier in the day, but fell to four points back of Toronto, who won. The road trip continues for Tampa Bay as they head to New York to take on the Rangers on Monday.
The Goals
Brayden Point (Nikita Kucherov) 1-0 Lightning
Tage Thompson (Zach Benson) 1-1
Gage Goncalves (Oliver Bjorkstrand, Yanni Gourde) 2-1 Lightning
Jason Zucker (Alex Tuch, Rasmus Dahlin) Power Play, 2-2
