Tyler Johnson had a goal and two assists for the Lightning and Nikita Kucherov added a goal and an assist. Ondrej Palat and Brett Connolly also scored, but it wasn’t enough to beat the Avalanche who won 5-4 behind Nathan MacKinnon‘s first NHL hat trick and Semyon Varlamov‘s timely saves.
The Bolts got off quickly as Ondrej Palat scored his 15th goal of the year at 10:53 assisted by Tyler Johnson. Avalanche defenseman Brad Stuart turned the puck over to Palat who did a give-and go with Johnson to give the Lightning the 1-0 lead. It was Palat’s third goal in two games. This was no surprise as Palat and Johnson lead the NHL in road points.
Nathan MacKinnon tied the game at one as he got loose between Jason Garrison and Nikita Nesterov and beat Andrei Vasilevskiy glove side at 16:21. Vasilevskiy probably wanted that one back as he seemed to be surprised by the shot. MacKinnon’s tenth of the year was assisted by Gabriel Landeskog.
Shots in the first period were 11-5 in favor of the Lightning.
MacKinnon scored his second of the game off of a Lightning bad clear at 3:10 of the third period. Mackinnon’s 11th was assisted by Tyson Barrie and Ryan O’Reilly.
Just 29 seconds later, the Avalanche went up 3-1 as Nikita Nesterov made an ill-advised backhand pass right to Colorado sniper Matt Duchene who beat Vasilevskiy from the slot.
Tyler Johnson scored his 23rd on a turnover by Colorado from Nikita Kucherov and Alex Killorn at 5:51 to make it 3-2 Avalanche. Johnson pounced on a rebound of a Kucherov shot and beat Varlamov five hole.
At 12:50 Nathan MacKinnon finished off his hat trick beating Vasilevskiy on a breakaway to make it 4-2 Avalanche. Mackinnon has four goals against the Bolts this season and eight against everyone else.
Shots in the period were 13-8 in favor of the Lightning.
In the third period, Colorado looked to have pulled away as ex-Bolt Alex Tanguay redirected a puck past Vasilevskiy at 7:20 for a 5-2 Avalanche lead.
Brett Connolly gave the Lightning a glimmer of hope as he scored his 12th at 11:43 from Valtteri Filppula and Cedric Paquette.
With just under a minute left and Vasilevskiy on the bench for the extra attacker, Nikita Kucherov scored from Victor Hedman and Johnson to pull the Lightning to within one. But, Semyon Varlamov and the Avalanche hung on to beat the Bolts 5-4.
The Lightning outshot the Avalanche 32-18.
Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy had the worst game of his NHL career, giving up five goals on 18 shots. After the game he took the blame for the loss and said it was a “tough” night and that he will work hard to be better.
Captain Steven Stamkos did not put the blame on the young netminder; “They didn’t get many chances, but all of them were prime scoring chances. Tough to ask your goalie to make a save on a breakaway and point-blank shots.”
Despite giving up four goals, Avalanche goalie Semyon Varlamov was the difference.
Tampa Bay is now 1-17-2 when trailing after two periods.
The Bolts finished their western road trip 3-2 with six points out of a possible ten and two, one goal losses.
Coach Jon Cooper: “That’s too bad because we’d had a really good trip and it stings to end the trip on this note. This one hurts. Ultimately, we came out and we got more points than games played, so maybe tomorrow I’ll have a little rosier feeling.”
Luke Witkowski (healthy), J.T. Brown (healthy), Radko Gudas (knee surgery, off crutches) and Matt Carle (abdominal surgery, skating) were the scratches.
The Lightning will host the Chicago Blackhawks Friday night.
(Feature Photograph/Getty Images)
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