The Tampa Bay Lightning have now dropped five of their last six home games after suffering a 6-3 loss to the Calgary Flames Thursday night at AMALIE Arena.
Calgary opened the scoring 11:40 into the first period when Dryden Hunt netted his second goal of the season.
After Yegor Sharangovich won a loose puck behind the Lightning net, the former New Jersey Devil sent a pass to the slot, where Hunt was waiting to fire a quick one-timer past Andrei Vasilevskiy and give the Flames a 1-0 lead.
Only 2:48 later, the Bolts got a response off the stick of Conor Sheary, who snapped a 35-game goalless drought and lit the lamp for the second time this season to even the score at 1-1.
Following a pinch up the left boards by Victor Hedman to keep the puck in the Calgary zone, Nick Paul gained possession and skated to the top of the circles before feeding a backhand pass to the back door, where Sheary was waiting to redirect the puck past Jacob Markstrom and tie the game.
With a sigh of relief, Sheary looked to the rafters and undoubtedly felt a huge weight come off his shoulders as his goal sent both teams to the first intermission even at one apiece.
After recording the lone assist on the first goal of the game, Sharangovich continued to make his impact felt with back-to-back goals in the second period, scoring at the 6:11 and 8:34 marks to give the Flames a 3-1 lead.
The go-ahead goal came off a loose puck that was batted out of midair and ended up on the stick of Jonathan Huberdeau near the bottom of the left circle in the Tampa Bay zone. Huberdeau sent a backhand pass through the slot that found Sharangovich all alone in front, allowing the Belarus native to fire a one-timer over the glove of Vasilevskiy.
Just 2:23 later, Matt Coronato jumped on a turnover in the Lightning end and quickly sent a pass to the top of the left circle for Sharangovich, who wired a one-timer past the glove of Vasilevskiy to make it a 3-1 game.
Jakob Pelletier pushed the Calgary lead to 4-1 less than a minute later when he jumped on a loose puck and beat Vasilevskiy for his first goal of the season. The Bolts challenged for goaltender interference, but the call on the ice was upheld and sent Tampa Bay to the penalty kill.
Looking to provide offense shorthanded, Anthony Cirelli drew a tripping penalty on Nazem Kadri 59 seconds into the Calgary power play and got the Lightning back within two 2:05 later.
Just as Kadri exited the penalty box, Nikita Kucherov fed the puck to Steven Stamkos, who surveyed his options and sent a hard pass to the back door, where Cirelli was waiting to jam the puck over the goal line and make it a 4-2 game with his 14th goal of the season.
Entering the final frame in a 4-2 hole, things went from bad to worse for the Bolts when Blake Coleman scored his 26th goal of the season to push the Flames lead to 5-2.
Following another turnover in the Tampa Bay defensive zone, Huberdeau sent a pass to the far boards for Sharangovich, who threw a shot towards the net that was redirected by Coleman into the back of the net.
Looking for a spark while trying to scratch and claw back from a three-goal deficit, Jon Cooper pulled Vasilevskiy for a sixth attacker with about eight minutes left in the third period. Andrew Mangiapane found the empty net at the 12:17 mark of the third and made it a 6-2 game.
Mikey Eyssimont scored the final goal of the game with 5:25 remaining in regulation, taking a pass from Sheary and firing a one-timer through the five hole of Markstrom for his ninth goal of the season.
Near the start of the third period, the Lightning announced the team acquired forward Anthony Duclair from San Jose, along with a seventh-round pick in 2025, in exchange for defenseman Jack Thompson and a third-round pick in 2024.
Bolts by the Numbers
- The Lightning won 69.8% of the 53 faceoffs, the second-highest faceoff win percentage in a single game in franchise history.
- Conor Sheary scored one goal and added an assist for his second multi-point game of the season. Sheary is up to 12 points on the season (2-10—12).
- Nick Paul recorded two assists for his ninth multi-point game of the season. Paul is now up to 34 points (17-17—34) on the season, a new career high.
- Victor Hedman picked up one assist and is up to 61 points on the season (10-51—61), the fourth-most he’s had in a single season.
- Anthony Cirelli scored his 14th goal of the season and is up to 34 points on the season (14-20—34), just 10 points shy of his career-high, 44-point season in 2019-20 (16-28—44).
- Steven Stamkos picked up the primary helper on Anthony Cirelli’s goal and is up to 53 assists on the year (24-29—53).
- Nikita Kucherov picked up the secondary assist on Anthony Cirelli’s goal and is up to 106 points on the year (38-68—106), the second-most among all NHL skaters.
- Mikey Eyssimont scored his career-high ninth goal and is up to 17 points on the season (9-8—17).
Bolts Quotes
Jon Cooper: “The word would probably be a little bit more than embarrassing. That's what it was. We haven't played since last Saturday. They had time away from the rink, time together, a couple practices. We couldn't have laid it out more perfect for them to come out and put a great show on for the fans and they did the complete opposite.”
Cooper: “The execution was horrendous but the decision making was probably even worse than that. That was a tough one. In saying all this, I don't want this to sound like, 'Oh my gosh, if we had played well, we would've beat Calgary.' That's not what I'm saying at all. I thought Calgary was excellent. It doesn't matter who we were going to play. The product they put on the ice tonight for our fans, that's kind of inexcusable.”
Conor Sheary on Anthony Duclair: “You're breaking news to me. I know he's a fast player. He can score goals. I remember playing against him in Florida and he was pretty electric. Happy to have him.”
Krenner’s Three Stars
- Yegor Sharangovich
- Jonathan Huberdeau
- Nick Paul
Lightning Look Ahead
- Saturday, March 9 vs. Philadelphia Flyers, 7 p.m. ET, AMALIE Arena - Buy Tickets
- Thursday, March 14 vs. New York Rangers, 7 p.m. ET, AMALIE Arena - Buy Tickets
- Saturday, March 16 vs. Florida Panthers, 6 p.m. ET, Amerant Bank Arena
