With the game tied 2-2 nearly 7 minutes into the third period on Saturday, the Tampa Bay Lightning had a prime chance to take their third lead of the night with a high-slot look on an odd-man rush.
A pass attempt was broken up by the Dallas Stars instead, and the visitors rushed the length of the ice at AMALIE Arena before Matt Duchene roofed the puck for a 3-2 lead just over 10 seconds later.
Roope Hintz added a power-play goal to steal a 4-2 win for the Stars.
“Both teams probably knew it was going to be hard to come by, chances hard to come by,” defenseman Ryan McDonagh said. “We kind of shot ourselves in the foot there and give them credit, they have a lot of skill, but they take advantage of your mistakes. And if you're going to keep making them, it's going to be tough to come back.”
Anthony Cirelli got Tampa Bay’s offense rolling on two occasions—the forward scored his seventh goal of the season 4:09 into play for a 1-0 lead, smacking a rebound in front of the net through Dallas goalie Jake Oettinger after a shot from the left corner by Brandon Hagel.
Dallas tied the game less than two minutes later when a blue-line shot by Ilya Lyubushkin tapped the skate of forward Evgenii Dadonov near the Lightning crease and slid over the goal-line 6:05 into the period.
Cirelli gave the lead back to the home team at the 8:34 mark with another rebound goal. Emil Lilleberg's shot from the right point was tipped by Cirelli, who then spun the rebound past Oettinger for a 2-1 lead.
Cirelli has goals in five consecutive games, the longest scoring streak of his NHL career. The 27-year-old forward is up to 8-13—21 through 19 games, tied with Hagel for second on the Lightning roster in offense.
“He was the best player on the ice, both teams. … He’s the guy that’s really carried us for a lot of the year,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “It’s been him.”
Dallas again had an answer when defenseman Miro Heiskanen tied the game with a shot from the left faceoff circle, burying a cross-ice saucer pass from Duchene with a top-shelf rip into the right side of the net.
Neither team scored in the second period before the Lightning had a rush with just over seven minutes left in regulation. An extra pass by Tampa Bay instead meant a three-man push the other way for Dallas, which capitalized with a Matt Duchene goal from a sharp angle to take their first lead of the night.
Cooper said his team was trying to make the fancy play on offense in the third period instead of keeping it simple.
"Tonight, we have it in our hands, and there's 13, 14 minutes left, a tie game. It's okay if we play boring hockey and go to overtime. It's okay. Take a point, see if we get the next one,” Cooper said.
"We're playing a team that's been to a couple conference finals the last two years, and that's why they do it. They just wait around content with a tie game and see if the other team is willing to give them a break. We did tonight. They capitalized, and they come out with two points, we get none.”
A power-play breakaway by Hintz on a bouncing puck at the offensive blue line capped the scoring for Dallas with 12:07 to play. Oettinger finished with 27 saves and the win, while Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 24 shots.
Cirelli said the Lightning were strong through two periods, but he also mentioned the third period mistakes being costly against a strong defensive team in Dallas.
“That's a really good team over there, and they stay in their structure. That last period we had a couple mistakes here that they went and capitalized on,” Cirelli said, "but they defended well in that third period, and their goalie made some big saves, as Vasy (Vasilevskiy) did as well. But, they got those extra two (goals)."
Tampa Bay is 10-7-2 on the year and will be home at AMALIE Arena again on Monday when they play their 20th game of the season against the Colorado Avalanche (12-9-0). Tampa Bay beat Colorado 5-2 on Oct. 30.
McDonagh said the Lightning have to take opportunities to shoot the puck when given them.
“We can say we've learned our lesson enough times this year, so we’ve got to start applying it and realize that we're leaving points out there because of our arrogance there,” McDonagh said. “So gotta stop it right now.”
Benjamin’s Three Stars:
- Matt Duchene, DAL – Game-winning goal, assist
- Anthony Cirelli, TBL – 2 goals
- Jake Oettinger, DAL – 27 saves
