The Backcheck: Home winning streak ends with OT loss to San Jose

The Tampa Bay Lightning saw its franchise record, 12-game home winning streak come to an end Tuesday evening when the team dropped its second contest in as many nights with a 4-3 overtime loss to the San Jose Sharks.

Following Monday night's 7-1 loss to the Florida Panthers down in Sunrise, Lightning head coach Jon Cooper challenged his team when speaking to the media postgame.
"My concern is not about tonight," said Cooper. "My concern's about tomorrow. Let's see how we respond, because this one's over.
"Games like this don't happen very often to us, but it'll be really interesting to see how we come out tomorrow."
The Bolts took the challenge and responded with a dominant first period, outscoring the Sharks 3-1 with a 17-7 shot advantage.
Tampa Bay got on the board early when Zach Bogosian made a nice pinch at the blue line and sent a pass down low for Ross Colton. When Kaapo Kahkonen made an ill-advised swipe at the puck, Colton took advantage and fired a shot into the open net for his 11th goal of the season.

Colton has now scored two goals over his last three contests and picked up four points over his last five with two goals and two assists.
After Ian Cole was whistled for interference at the 6:23 mark of the first, San Jose immediately took advantage with Erik Karlsson rifling home a slap shot from the point to even the score at one just five seconds into the power play.
Following the Karlsson goal, the Lightning got a power play of their own when Michael Eyssimont was whistled for holding at the 8:46 mark of the first. Brayden Point carried the puck through the neutral zone and sent a pass to the left boards for Nikita Kucherov, who gained entry into the San Jose zone.
From there, the NHL leader in assists sent a pass back to Point, who was waiting for the puck in the high slot before ripping a perfectly placed wrist shot into the top left corner, over the blocker of Kahkonen, for his 30th goal of the season.
Point continues to lead the Bolts in goal scoring and hit the 30-goal mark in his 50th game of the season, the sixth-fewest number of games required to hit 30 goals in Lightning franchise history. Steven Stamkos holds the record after hitting the 30-goal mark in 38 games during the 2010-11 season. Point previously hit 30 goals in 48 contests during the 2018-19 campaign.
Point's goal was the 424th point of his career, moving him past Ondrej Palat and into sole possession of the eighth-most points in Tampa Bay franchise history. It also marked his 126th career power-play point, tying him with Dan Boyle for the seventh-most power-play points in team history.
With the primary assist on the goal, Kucherov recorded a point at AMALIE Arena for the 16th-straight game, tying the longest home point streak in franchise history, a mark he previously recorded during the 2018-19 season.
With 3:16 remaining in the opening frame, Point added his second goal of the contest when he displayed more of the impressive hand-eye coordination Lightning fans have seen all season, batting a loose puck out of midair and sliding it past the left leg of Kahkonen to put Tampa Bay up 3-1 with his 31st goal of the year.
It was a dominant 20 minutes for the Bolts, who went into the intermission with a 3-1 lead and a 15-3 advantage in scoring chances, per Natural Stat Trick.

The second period was filled with special teams. San Jose was whistled for three minor penalties and Tampa Bay was whistled for two, but neither team had a two-man advantage at any point. In total, 8:05 of the second period was played with one team on a power play.
The Lightning's power play was getting some looks, but were unable to convert, while the Sharks scored on their third power-play opportunity of the night, again just five seconds into the man advantage. The period ended with the Bolts still maintaining a one-goal lead going into the third period on home ice, a situation where the team has typically performed strongly. The Lightning were 17-1-1 when leading after two periods prior to Tuesday's contest.
Cooper was very pleased with the opening 20 minutes and the response his team gave following Monday's disappointing loss to Florida. But, from there, things went sideways.
"It was an unreal response," Cooper said. "I thought we came out and dictated play and did everything we wanted to do for 20 minutes.
"Then, special teams took over and we lost the special teams game. That was it."
San Jose tied the game 3:08 into the third period when a shot from the point changed directions on multiple occasions with a couple deflections and snuck past Brian Elliott to make it a 3-3 game. Tampa Bay failed to find the back of the net for the remainder of the period and surrendered a breakaway to Meier with about one minute remaining in regulation. Fortunately for the Bolts, his shot rang off the goal post.
From there, the game advanced to overtime before Karlsson found Meier for his second goal of the contest and the game-winning goal at the 2:19 mark of the extra frame.
"We gave up a breakaway in regulation with 10 seconds left to a really good player," Cooper said. "I sit here and say, 'Well, I think we're fortunate we got a point out of this game.'
"Let's take that and move on, but no question, an extremely disappointing loss for our group."
Things won't get any easier with the Lightning's upcoming schedule. Tampa Bay will face the Colorado Avalanche in a Stanley Cup Final rematch at AMALIE Arena on Thursday night before taking off for a nine-day, four-game road trip with games against Dallas, Colorado, Arizona and Vegas.

"We've got four in six coming off the break and we've got some really good teams coming up with Colorado twice and Dallas once," said Victor Hedman. "We've just got to get back to work. That's the bottom line.
"For us, we're a proud team, and losing two in a row is not acceptable, so we want to bounce back."
While the Bolts will certainly want to get back at Colorado following last year's result in the Final, Cooper said that his team did not have this game circled on their calendar. They're more concentrated on playing the right way and solidifying a playoff spot, which he thinks is also the case for the Avalanche.
"Neither one of us are winning the Cup on Thursday night," Cooper said. "We're just trying to play and get better and make sure that we're both in the playoffs. That's how I look at this game."
Nick Paul left the bench late in the second period and did not return for the remainder of the contest. Cooper did not have an update on his status following the game.
The Lightning and Avalanche will face off at 7 p.m. Thursday night in the final game of the brief, two-game homestand. Tampa Bay posted an 0-1-1 record in two regular season contests vs. Colorado last season.