The Backcheck: Bolts can't overcome rough second period, fall to Flames

The Tampa Bay Lightning concluded their five-game road trip with a 4-2 loss to the Calgary Flames Saturday night at Scotiabank Saddledome.

As has been the case for the duration of the road trip, the Bolts struggled in the second period and were outscored 3-0 in the middle frame. Over the course of the five-game trip, the Lightning were outscored 12-0 in the second period.

And despite scoring twice in the final 20 minutes, the three-goal deficit was too much to overcome with the Flames adding one additional goal in the third to secure the 4-2 win.

After 20 minutes of scoreless hockey to start the game, Calgary got three consecutive goals from A.J. Greer (2:30), MacKenzie Weegar (6:17) and Yegor Sharangovich (7:00), while outshooting Tampa Bay 12-10 in the second period.

The Bolts got on the board 4:10 into the third period when Nikita Kucherov did a nice job to force a turnover on the forecheck and sent the puck to the slot, where Brayden Point was waiting to quickly fire home his 14th goal of the season.

Not shortly after, the Lightning found themselves right back in the game when Steven Stamkos netted his 15th goal of the year just 1:30 after Point made it a 3-1 game.

With Tampa Bay on the power play, Kucherov sent a pass to the slot for Point that was redirected and shot up into the air. Tracking the puck the whole way, Stamkos quickly leapt into the air, caught the puck, laid it down and hammered a slap shot past Dan Vladar for his 400th career power-play point.

Suddenly, the Lightning were back within one goal and still had 14:20 remaining in regulation to work with.

Tampa Bay continued to push for the tying goal, but fell back into a two-goal hole with 8:18 remaining when Connor Zary snuck a shot short side past Andrei Vasilevskiy to give Calgary a 4-2 lead.

That would be the final goal of the contest, sending the Bolts back to Tampa with four points earned on the five-game trip. The Lightning dropped to 14-13-5 on the season with a road record of 6-10-2.

Victor Hedman returned to the lineup after missing the past two games with an upper-body injury and logged a team-high 24:41 time on ice with three shots, one hit and two blocked shots.

Bolts by the Numbers

- Nikita Kucherov picked up two assists for his 15th multi-point game of the season.

- Kucherov has eight points over his last four games with three goals and five assists.

- Kucherov’s 52 points (20G, 32A) are the most among all NHL skaters.

- Steven Stamkos scored a power-play goal and became the 64th player in NHL history to record 400 career power-play points.

- Stamkos has scored five goals over his last two games and is up to 31 points (15G, 16A) on the season.

- Brayden Point scored one goal and extended his point streak to four games.

- Point now has 34 points (14G, 20A) in 32 games this season.

- Calvin de Haan recorded a season-high four blocked shots.  

Bolts Quotes

- Jon Cooper on the five-game road trip: “I’m disappointed in the road trip. You come out here. It’s a long way to go and a lot of days to come away with four points. We left points on the table, but in the end, it comes down to puck management. We’ll go through video with them, and they’ll watch their shifts and stuff like that, but some of the decision making we’ve made on this trip has been tough and it’s cost us. Giving up three goals in a game is too much, let alone three goals in four and a half minutes. It’s tough to get points when you’re doing that.”

- Victor Hedman on the five-game road trip: “You’re going to go through tough times in this league. We’ve just got to get back to playing the right way. We’re not doing that. Even the game we won against Edmonton; we don’t win that game if Vasy doesn’t stand on his head. It’s just a matter of us getting back to what works and we know we have it in us. We’ve just got to make the right plays at the right time.”

- Brayden Point on the loss: “We’re not a bad team when we’re executing, but when we get sloppy in our own end, it’s tough. Teams take over. There are skilled guys on the other team. You give them time and space and you give them turnovers; they make you pay. Again, tonight, that’s what happened.”

Krenner’s Three Stars

1. MacKenzie Weegar

2. Nikita Kucherov

3. Blake Coleman

Lightning Look Ahead

- Tuesday, December 19 vs. St. Louis Blues, 7 p.m. ET, AMALIE Arena

- Thursday, December 21 vs. Vegas Golden Knights, 7 p.m. ET, AMALIE Arena

- Saturday, December 23 at Washington Capitals, 7 p.m. ET, Capital One Arena