The Tampa Bay Lightning’s club record home win streak was stopped at ten games as a desperate Los Angeles Kings team beat them 4-2 at Amalie Arena. The Kings looked like their Stanley Cup Champion selves as they played solid defense, had superior goaltending and consistently answered back when the Bolts came on. The Kings are a heavy team with much playoff experience who needed to start a run to make the playoffs.
The first period was a brutal one for the Lightning, who certainly weren’t ready to play against the Cup champions. It was an ironic start as the Kings are notoriously slow starters and the Lightning usually play well early.
Los Angeles opened the scoring at 1:33 as Tyler Toffoli scored his 14th, unassisted, off a Lightning turnover in their own end.
The Kings’ took a 2-0 lead as Justin Williams scored his 14th of the season at 12:30. Trevor Lewis flipped a nice backhand pass across the crease to Williams, who had flown past Cedric Paquette.
At 19:58 Kings defenseman Drew Doughty scored his fifth through a Dustin Brown screen to make it 3-0. Bishop looked like he was out of position and never saw the shot that beat him short side.
Shots in the first period were tied at nine each. The Bolts had four giveaways in the period.
Andrei Vasilevskiy replaced Ben Bishop in goal for the Bolts to start the second period.
Nikita Kucherov scored the only goal of a very chippy second period, his 19th of the season at 58 seconds. Kucherov and the triplets worked hard for the goal that pulled the Bolts within two.
After the second period, shots were 24-19 in favor of the Kings.
A minute and a half into the third period Victor Hedman scored his seventh of the season from Ryan Callahan as he fired a wrist shot high, stick-side to beat Jonathan Quick.
At 7:46 Justin Williams put the game away as he scored his second of the game and 15th of the season from Marian Gaborik and Robyn Regehr. Williams blasted the puck past Vasilevskiy from the right circle as he was left all alone.
Shots in the third period were 9-5 Tampa Bay and for the game were 29-28 in favor of Los Angeles.
Rookie netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy played well in relief of Bishop, stopping 19 of 20 shots.
Ben Bishop did not play badly, but instead was hung out to dry by the defense. After the game he said, he wished he could have stopped at least one to keep them closer in first. “Kind of forget this one and get ready for tomorrow.”
The Bolts are now 1-15-1 when trailing after two periods.
It was the Lightning’s 27th home game and only fifth loss.
It was coach Rick Bowness‘ 2,000 NHL game.
Steven Stamkos turned 25 years old today.
Toronto GM Dave Nonis attended the game fueling Bolts and Leafs trade speculation.
J.T. Brown (healthy), Jason Garrison (lower body, day-to-day), Radko Gudas (knee surgery) and Matt Carle (abdominal surgery) were the scratches. Garrison sustained a lower-body injury in a win over the Dallas Stars on Thursday night at American Airlines Center. He’s considered day-to-day, though Cooper doesn’t envision Garrison’s absence to be “extremely long term.”
The Lightning will host arguably the best team in the NHL, the Anaheim Ducks tomorrow night.
(Feature Photograph/Getty Images)
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