1. SECOND PERIOD FLURRY BURIES BOLTS
Tampa Bay liked a lot of what they were able to do in the first period against Colorado.
Despite giving up an early goal 3:09 into the game to Tyson Jost, who would end up with a hat trick on the night, the Lightning battled back to tie the game, Yanni Gourde netting his first of the season with 2:25 remaining in the opening period to send the game into the intermission 1-1.
Saturday's game seemed to be following a similar template to the Lightning's previous two victories at Montreal and Boston: give up the opening goal despite starting well and score right before the break to grab momentum heading into the locker room.
Except unlike Montreal and Boston, the Lightning left that momentum in the room as Colorado scored three goals in a span of 2:49 in the first six minutes of the second period to take complete control of the game.
"I think up until that point we were playing pretty well. We had a lot of shots, a lot of opportunities," Lightning forward Tyler Johnson said. "It was just we ended up giving that first one up and then the two quick ones right after that. Once you get that momentum shift like that, it's hard to get back from. I thought the majority of the game we played the way we wanted to play, but there were definitely times and moments where we didn't and Colorado's too good of a team that when you have those moments, they make the best of it."
Once the Lightning fell behind by three goals, they were forced to open things up in an effort to get back in the game. They nearly did too when Nikita Kucherov was awarded a penalty shot after he was hacked on an open drive to the net.
Kucherov, however, put his backhander an inch over the crossbar, and a minute-and-a-half later, Nazem Kadri got Kevin Shattenkirk on his hip in the slot and zipped a shot past Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy to extend Colorado's lead to 5-1 and effectively ice the game.
"Sometimes it turns into a game of mistakes. And the team that makes the most usually pays the price," Tampa Bay head coach Jon Cooper said. "I can't sit here and say who made the most mistakes, but the ones we did make it seemed like they put it in the back of the net on every one of them, so it probably magnified those chances. A couple of them, it's easy to get in deep, we don't, and they're a really good, explosive team."