After the team’s five-game point streak was snapped in a 4-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche Monday night, the Tampa Bay Lightning dropped a second-straight contest in a 3-1 loss to the Arizona Coyotes Tuesday night at Mullett Arena.
Following the loss to Colorado on Monday, the Bolts weren’t happy with the group’s overall push for the majority of the contest. As a result, Tanner Jeannot looked to give his team an early spark when he dropped the gloves with Josh Brown at center ice just 3:15 into the contest in a spirited scrap.
But it was Arizona that capitalized immediately after the fight to take a 1-0 lead just six seconds after the ensuing faceoff. Following an offensive zone faceoff win from Alex Kerfoot, Michael Kesselring sent a pass to the right circle for Michael Carcone, who quickly turned and fired a shot towards the net that beat a screened Jonas Johansson to the near post.
Shots were even at 8-8 after the opening 20 minutes, but Tampa Bay had another eight shot attempts miss the net in the first period.
The Coyotes doubled the lead at the 5:42 mark of the second period when Travis Boyd took a pass from Josh Brown, entered the offensive zone and fired a quick snap shot past Johansson for his first goal of the season.
Nearly 10 minutes later, the Lightning were able to finally get a shot past Connor Ingram and make it a 2-1 game with Brayden Point netting his 12th goal of the season with 4:38 remaining in the second period.
After a quick give-and-go between Nikita Kucherov and Brandon Hagel, Kucherov entered the Arizona zone on the right wing and sent a backhand pass across the crease to Point, who quickly fired a one-timer past Ingram to get the Bolts back within one.
But as Tampa Bay continued to push for the game-tying goal, they just couldn’t find a way to get another shot past Ingram, who ended the night with 30 saves on 31 shots against after Carconepushed the lead to 3-1 with the final goal of the contest at the 7:22 mark of the third. Jonas Johansson made 24 stops on 27 shots against in the defeat.
Bolts by the Numbers
- Brayden Point recorded his 30th point in his 23rd game, marking the fewest contests he has needed to reach the mark in a season (previously 24 GP in 2018-19).
- Nikita Kucherov (9-17—26 in Nov. 2023) passed Vincent Lecavalier (9-16—25 in Nov. 2007) for the most points by a Lightning player in a single November.
- Kucherov extended his point/assist streak to seven games (4-10—14). Kucherov is one game away from matching his career-long assist streak (8 GP in 2022-23).
Bolts Quotes
- Jon Cooper: “Finding that 5-on-5 scoring has been tough of late. I think some of it gets masked because the power play has been really good this year. If you’re not getting power plays in a game, it’s not going to do it for you, so you have to score 5-on-5 in this league. It’s just been tough for us. It’s not like the guys aren’t trying. At some point we’ve got to start willing some of these pucks in the net and we just couldn’t get one tonight.”
- Jon Cooper: “When you’re only getting one a night, it’s tough to win games. Some nights the puck goes in for you and some nights it doesn’t. The past couple nights, we’ve put a ton of pucks at nets and they just haven’t gone in for us. At some point they will. We’ve just got to keep being in those spots, taking eyes away and trust that our work’s going to pay off. But the last two nights, it has not.”
Krenner’s Three Stars
1. Connor Ingram
2. Michael Caracone
3. Nikita Kucherov
Lightning Look Ahead
Thursday, November 30 vs. Pittsburgh Penguins, 7 p.m. ET, AMALIE Arena
Saturday, December 2 at Dallas Stars, 2 p.m. ET, American Airlines Center
Monday, December 4 vs. Dallas Stars, 7 p.m. ET, AMALIE Arena
