Going into the third period with a one-goal lead, the Tampa Bay Lightning surrendered three consecutive goals in a disappointing 4-2 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets Thursday night at Nationwide Arena.
The Bolts fell behind early in the contest when Kirill Marchenko opened the scoring at the 6:29 mark of the first period with his first goal of the season. But after a slow start, the Lightning began to push back and ended the opening frame in a 1-0 hole, but with the shot totals even at 11 apiece.
In the middle frame, Tampa Bay played their best period of the night, outshooting Columbus 12-5 and scoring two goals to take a 2-1 lead to the locker room for the second intermission.
Steven Stamkos got the Bolts on the board and tied the game 1-1 with his fourth goal of the season at the 2:53 mark of the second period. Collecting the puck in his own zone, Stamkos darted down the ice through all three zones, outskating Emil Bemstrom before sending a pass across the crease intended for Nick Paul that deflected off the skate of Jake Bean and past Elvis Merzlikins to even the score.
Just 1:49 later, Stamkos was right in the middle of the play again when the Lightning took a 2-1 lead off the stick of Conor Sheary. Looking confident with the puck, Stamkos sent a pass from the left circle that deflected off the skate of a Columbus defender and went right to Sheary, who had slid out to the back door to redirect the puck pass Merzlikins for his first goal in a Tampa Bay sweater. Erik Cernak picked up the secondary helper for his first point of the season.
Going into the third period with a one-goal lead, the Lightning have typically had a lot of success over the years. But on Thursday night, Tampa Bay got outshot 12-6 in the final frame, surrendering goals to Boone Jenner at the 6:41 mark and Erik Gudbranson just 2:43 later.
Back in a one-goal hole with 10 minutes left in regulation, the Lightning were whistled for two penalties in the second half of the final period and were unable to find a game-tying goal before Johnny Gaudreau ended the game when he scored an empty-net goal with 2:11 left in regulation.
With the loss, Tampa Bay remains winless on the road, carrying a record of 0-3-1 in road games this season. The Lightning have three games remaining on the current road trip, all against opponents within the Atlantic Division.
Bolts Quotes
Jon Cooper: “You play 55 minutes of hockey and you play five minutes of not so good and it's burning us. I said it earlier. You've got to play a complete game and we are not doing that. If you're not going to do that on the road, you're going to have no chance of winning.”
Steven Stamkos: “Sometimes I feel like we lose the identity of our team. We've got to figure that out. We've been put in those positions a lot over the years of having the lead in the third & knowing what do...Ultimately, we didn't play the game that we needed to to close that out.”
Jon Cooper: “I know we gave up the first goal, but we pushed pretty well there in the second period and there's no reason we couldn't push like that again. One team came out and wanted to win the game and one team came out in the third and found a way to lose it. That's why there's three periods. You've got to play them all and we clearly didn't play the third one tonight.”
Bolts by the Numbers
- Steven Stamkos scored the 519th goal of his career and passed Dale Hawerchuk (518) for sole possession of 39th place on the NHL’s all-time list.
- Steven Stamkos is now up to 289 career multi-point games, the 60th-most in NHL history. He'll tie Daniel Alfredsson and Darryl Sittler with his next multi-point effort.
- Conor Sheary scored his first goal as a member of the Lightning. He’s recorded three points this season with a goal and two helpers.
- Erik Cernak picked up his first point of the season with an assist on the Sheary goal.
- Matt Tomkins made 24 saves on 27 shots against in his second career NHL game.
Krenner’s Three Stars
- Erik Gudbranson
- Steven Stamkos
- Elvis Merzlikins
Lightning Look Ahead
Saturday, November 4 at Ottawa Senators, 7 p.m. ET, Canadian Tire Centre
Monday, November 6 at Toronto Maple Leafs, 7 p.m. ET, Scotiabank Arena
Tuesday, November 7 at Montreal Canadiens, 7 p.m. ET, Bell Centre
