The Tampa Bay Lightning ended their three-game saunter to California with a back-to-back against the Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks this weekend.
Tampa Bay fell 2-1 at the hands of the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday and lost a 4-1 game at Honda Center against the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday despite earning multiple scoring looks. Tampa Bay mustered 71 shots on goal in the two games but finished with two goals across the back-to-back.
The Lightning are 20-15-2 this season and will look to snap a four-game losing streak when they return to AMALIE Arena for a two-game homestand this week, one that begins against the Carolina Hurricanes at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
“Coming out here, playing three games and coming out with zero points, we’re definitely not used to that. It’s a humbling game,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said Sunday of the three-game road trip.
“In the end you could probably make an argument that we played better than our opponent in all three games. That’s why it humbles you because in the end it’s the final result that matters. Whether it was a bad start tonight or kind of a bad finish last night, in the end we scored three goals in three games and it’s tough to win when you’re not scoring.”
Lightning earn scoring chances, but goals hard to find against Kings
Chances were omnipresent for the Tampa Bay Lightning in Saturday’s late night battle against the Western Conference’s Los Angeles Kings, but goals were not.
Tampa Bay lost 2-1 at Crypto.com Arena despite outshooting the Kings 34 to 21 and earning numerous quality looks near the Los Angeles net.
Lightning coach Jon Cooper liked the way his team played for most of Saturday, but both he and his players used the word “frustrating” to describe the loss.
“It’s unfortunate because you look at the totality of the game, we couldn’t have played a better road game than what we played,” Cooper said. “And to come out with zero points, it’s frustrating because this was a game, whoever was gonna crack first was probably gonna lose, and unfortunately we cracked. It’s too bad because I think the boys deserved a better fate.”
Tampa Bay captain Victor Hedman scored 69 seconds into the game for a 1-0 lead, ripping a slap shot from the left point that beat Los Angeles goalie Darcy Kuemper after it redirected off the stick of Kings defender Mikey Anderson.
Anderson made up for the bad bounce later in the first period—the defenseman tied the game 7:58 into the opening frame, blasting a shot into the bottom right corner of the Lightning net after a won faceoff at the left circle.
Tampa Bay outshot the Kings 11 to four in the first period and earned numerous looks near the net throughout the game, including multiple shots on the rush.
Los Angeles broke the tie with 5:48 remaining in the game, as forward Adrian Kempe buried a shot from the center hashmarks after a drop pass from Alex Turcotte. The play began after a missed pass in the Lightning offensive zone.
“This was a tough one for us to come out with no points,” Cooper said. “I thought we played a heck of a game. We had a minute segment where we pressed for offense when we didn’t really need to. We got away with it on the 2-on-1 we gave up, and they went down again and we probably were pressing too hard again and gave up the chance and they buried their second crack at it.”
Forwards Brayden Point and Jake Guentzel earned assists on the Hedman goal, and Tampa Bay goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy finished with 19 saves.
Defenseman Ryan McDonagh said the Lightning are well aware that the Kings are a tight-checking team. He also gave credit to Kuemper—who finished with 33 saves in the win—before saying the Lightning have to grind standings points out of games such as Saturday.
“It felt like we were tilting the ice for the majority of the game and were being patient there for the majority of the game. A couple of minutes, a couple of plays and it gets away from us and they capitalize,” McDonagh said. “As far as dictating and close to a 60-minute (effort), sure, but it’s tough to think about a moral victory at this point in the season and we’ve got to find ways to get points here on this trip.”
Tampa Bay forward Zemgus Girgensons echoed McDonagh’s points, saying the Lightning are best with a simple attack when they don’t force plays in the offensive zone.
“Definitely a tough one to swallow because for the most part we did a pretty good job overall,” Girgensons said. “LA is a very disciplined team, so I think we can just take away something from them that you gotta stick with it, be disciplined for all 60 minutes.”
Ben’s Three Stars:
- Darcy Kuemper, LAK (33 saves, W)
- Adrian Kempe, LAK (Game-winning goal)
- Victor Hedman, TBL (Goal)
Slow start, Anaheim’s Gibson the difference on Sunday
Anaheim Ducks goaltender John Gibson didn’t have much time to relax in the blue paint on Sunday at Honda Center, but the veteran NHL netminder was up to the task.
Gibson stopped 36 of 37 Lightning shots on a night the visitors repeatedly peppered Anaheim across the final 40 minutes of hockey.
Anaheim had a quicker start than Tampa Bay, earning the game’s first eight shots on goal. The Ducks led 2-0 after one period, as forward Troy Terry’s shot found the top right corner of the net 5:24 into the game and Frank Vatrano doubled the home team’s lead late in the first period on a redirected shot by defenseman Jacob Trouba.
Tampa Bay was outshot 12 to five in the opening 20 minutes, but the visitors were everywhere in the second period—the Lightning outshot Anaheim 32 to 14 across the final two periods, a run that included 18 shots and a power-play goal from Jake Guentzel in the second period.
Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov drew a crowd at the top of the offensive zone before passing to Guentzel at the right faceoff circle. Guentzel wound up to one-time the puck into the net with 11:48 left in the second for the visitors’ lone goal of the night.
Defenseman Jackson LaCombe finished a 2-on-1 rush for the Ducks late in the game, and Vatrano put his second goal of the night into an empty Lightning net for the 4-1 final score.
“You never wanna put yourself down 2-0. It’s a tough league to come back from, so definitely not the way we wanna start,” Guentzel said. “Tough road trip for us, but now we gotta go home and regroup.”
Gibson repeatedly dove, stretched and sprawled across the Anaheim crease to deny the Lightning of a tying goal, and multiple members of the Lightning acknowledged the 31-year-old goalie’s effort after the game.
The Lightning mentioned getting back to simple, hard-nosed hockey as the reason for the turnaround in the latter half of Sunday’s game.
Lightning goalie Jonas Johansson made 22 saves in his first start since Dec. 29. With four games in six days this week, forward Anthony Cirelli said the Lightning are motivated to put an end to their current slide.
“We believe in our group in here that we’re a really good team, so we just gotta come out from the first puck drop, be ready to go from the start and get back to playing the game that makes us successful. That’s playing hard, playing fast,” Cirelli said. “Obviously not the way we wanted to start the New Year, but we’ll go over some video here and things that we can do and be better at and be ready to go for the next one.”
His coach also believes in the group breaking out of the losing streak.
“There’s times you go through win streaks and you’re playing brutal but everything’s going in for you. Then there’s times you lose games and you thought you deserved a better result,” coach Cooper said. “I look at some of these games and it’s frustrating when you don’t get points out of them, but you have to fight through it. The effort’s there, the boys are grinding.“
Ben’s Three Stars:
- John Gibson, ANA (36 saves, W)
- Frank Vatrano, ANA (2 goals, assist)
- Troy Terry, ANA (Goal, assist)
