The Tampa Bay Lightning suffered a 4-3 loss to the Seattle Kraken Monday night at AMALIE Arena in a fashion that’s starting to become a little bit too familiar. The defeat marked the third time the Bolts have dropped a game in overtime this season. Including playoff games, the Lightning have lost 10 of their last 11 contests that have gone to overtime.
Still, the Bolts were able to salvage a point Monday night after overcoming multiple two-goal deficits. And while Tampa Bay may have dropped the game in overtime, it was the first period that set the stage for the disappointing defeat.
With Seattle tilting the ice and starting to generate chances, the Kraken opened the scoring at the 12:08 mark of the first with Brian Dumoulin cashing in for his first goal of the season. After Jonas Johansson was able to make the initial save on a heavy one-timer from Justin Schultz, the rebound popped right out to Dumoulin, who quickly fired the puck into the back of the net to make it a 1-0 game.
Exactly one minute later, a familiar face doubled the Kraken lead with Yanni Gourde scoring his second goal of the campaign to make it 2-0 with 6:52 left in the first. Finding a soft spot in the high slot, Gourde took a pass from Kailer Yamamoto and fired a shot past Johansson to give Seattle the multi-goal lead.
But Tampa Bay punched right back and made it a one-goal game just 29 seconds later when Tanner Jeannot scored his second goal of the season with 6:23 remaining in the opening frame. With Jeannot in on the forecheck alongside Anthony Cirelli and Waltteri Merela, Cirelli was able to send the puck up to the point for Darren Raddysh, who then fed a pass across the blue line to Haydn Fleury. With his head up the whole way, Fleury fired a shot toward the net that was blocked by Will Borgen, but Jeannot was right there to win the loose puck and shovel a backhand shot on goal that beat Grubauer to make it a 2-1 game.
With Mikey Eyssimont sent off for tripping 1:30 after Jeannot got the Lightning back within one, Bolts fans saw something they haven’t seen much of so far this season – Tampa Bay giving up a power-play goal. After Johansson was able to fight off an initial shot and a rebound attempt from Seattle, a third shot on goal came from Yamamoto and found the back of the net to make it a 3-1 game with 4:08 left in the first. The goal marked the first time that the Lightning have allowed the opposition to score a power-play goal since the first game of the year against the Nashville Predators.
Heading into the second period down by two, the Bolts came out with a purpose and got rewarded early with Alex Barre-Boulet netting his third goal of the season and extending his point streak to four games. With Jamie Oleksiak in the penalty box for holding, Jeannot and Brandon Hagel both tried to jam a loose puck past Grubauer before it found its way right onto the stick of Barre-Boulet, who buried his first power-play goal of the year to make it 3-2 with 16:20 remaining in the middle frame.
Down by one to begin the third period, Tampa Bay continued to push for the game-tying goal, recording a 13-5 shot advantage over the Kraken in the final 20 minutes. And with 5:28 remaining in regulation, the Bolts evened the score with Hagel scoring his sixth goal of the season, tied with Nikita Kucherov for the Lightning team lead.
Gaining possession in the offensive zone, Hagel attempted to send a pass to the slot, but the puck deflected off the skate of Alex Wennberg and slipped through the five hole of Grubauer to make it a 3-3 game with Cirelli and Barre-Boulet picking up the helpers.
Entering overtime with an 0-2 record in the extra frame this season, the Bolts wanted to show improvement after working on 3-on-3 during multiple practices since the most recent overtime loss to Toronto.
But after losing the opening faceoff once again, the Lightning were forced to chase the puck to start the extra frame. Tampa Bay was able to gain possession and generated a great scoring chance that ended with Kucherov hitting the post, but shortly after, Nick Paul was whistled for hooking and sent Seattle to a 4-on-3 power play. Fifty-four seconds into the man advantage, Jared McCann blasted a one-timer past Johansson to give Seattle the 4-3 win.
The Lightning fell to 4-2-3 on the season with a home record of 4-0-2.
Bolts Quotes
Jon Cooper: “Do I think we're a better team now than day one of the season? I do. Do I feel like we're a better team than we were a week ago? I do. Is that going to translate into points? I can't sit here and say that. If we play with the desperation we had in the second and third, I'll take our chances. If we play how a little lethargic we were in the first period, it's going to be tough for us. That's what it comes down to.”
Brandon Hagel: “I don’t know. I think we’re just cursed right now. I don’t even know what to say. I think everyone knows what our record is in overtime, whether it’s the playoffs or now. We’ve got to find a way to get out of it. Eventually we will, sooner than later. I think it’s gone on for too long. It sucks. We want to get out of it, but it is what it is.”
Jon Cooper: “We've had a little bit of time off and you could tell. We didn't game it out near to the desperation we played with as that game went on in the second and third. Disappointing from that respect, but if you're going to sit here and spot them three goals and say you're going to get a point out of it, we'll take it.”
Tanner Jeannot: “You’ve got to have the puck. It can be a lot of work out there if you don’t have the puck and you’re just kind of trying to get it away from them. That’s the way it goes sometimes. You’ve just got to try to play it the best you can, stick with your guy and wait for your opportunity to get it. We’ve been working on it and we’re just going to continue to do that.”
Jon Cooper: “They played hard enough to get us a point. I told the guys in the locker room - I commended them for coming out and playing two pretty damn good periods. But it's the National Hockey League. If you're going to spot a team three goals in the first period, you've got to get the next four to win the game. Four, in two periods. People are going to look and say, 'Oh, you hit a post here. You missed this here at the end.' But that's not where the game was lost. The game was lost in the first period.”
Jon Cooper: “We haven't won a faceoff in overtime. If you're not going to win faceoffs and then you're going to take penalties, it's really hard to do anything in overtime. I thought we played it OK. Again, they had possession. We made them turn it over at one point and ended up getting the 2-on-1 out of it and we were that close to winning it in the limited time we did have the puck. But you turn around, lose another faceoff, take a penalty and that's it. Now, you're in a little bit of trouble and we couldn't kill it off.”
Bolts by the Numbers
- The Lightning wrapped up the five-game homestand with eight of a possible 10 points. The Bolts have collected points in six consecutive contests dating back to October 17.
- After back-to-back shutouts, Jonas Johansson went 132:08 without allowing a goal, the longest shutout streak in the NHL this season.
- Jonas Johansson has made 260 saves this season, the most among all NHL goaltenders.
- Brandon Hagel scored his 40th goal with the Lightning in his 112th game, requiring the sixth-fewest games in franchise history to reach the mark, trailing Brian Bradley (76 GP), Ryan Malone (91 GP), Dino Ciccarelli (99 GP), Petr Klima (100 GP) and Steven Stamkos (103 GP).
- Brandon Hagel is up to six goals on the season, tied with Nikita Kucherov for the Lightning team lead. His 10 points are tied with Brayden Point for the second-most on the team.
- Alex Barre-Boulet scored his third goal of the campaign, tying his career high for a single season, and added an assist for the first multi-point game of his career. He has picked up points in four straight games.
- With a goal and an assist, Tanner Jeannot recorded his second multi-point game of the season.
- Haydn Fleury collected one assist for his first point of the season.
- The Lightning have scored a power-play goal in every home game this season and seven of their nine contests overall.
Krenner’s Three Stars
- Jared McCann
- Tanner Jeannot
- Jonas Johansson
Lightning Look Ahead
Thursday, November 2 at Columbus Blue Jackets, 7 p.m. ET, Nationwide Arena
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
