After giving one away in Vancouver last night, the Tampa Bay Lightning (15-14-3) traveled to Edmonton and fought to earn a point as they lost 3-2 in a shootout to the Oilers. Jonathan Drouin and Tyler Johnson scored for the Bolts and Ben Bishop had 31 saves.
The Lightning were outshot 11-5 in a scoreless first period. Bolts were 0-1 on the power play (0 shots) and 2-2 on the kill. Goalie Ben Bishop was solid in stopping all 11 shots he faced. Victor Hedman logged 9:44 of ice time, Slater Koekkoek just 2:23 and Nikita Nesterov 3:53. ( Via beat writer Joe Smith)
With Vladislav Namestnikov off for hooking, Edmonton’s Milan Lucic scored his ninth goal from Leon Draisaitl and Andrej Sekera at 3:58 of the second period.
[protected-iframe id=”2d0c451c70628a60fb6def3abff9caf4-114320562-46289989″ info=”https://www.nhl.com/video/embed/lucics-ppg-opens-the-scoring/t-283246636/c-47511903?autostart=false” width=”540″ height=”360″]The Lightning produced some good scoring chances from Brian Boyle, Jonathan Drouin and Valtteri Filppula without any results until Drouin took advantage of an Oilers player without a stick, thanks to Boyle knocking it out of his hands. Drouin skated closer and closer around the left circle and let a wrister go that beat Talbot at 18:59. Drouin’s seventh was assisted by Hedman and Brayden Point. With the assist Victor Hedman (254 career points) has now passed Dan Boyle as the Lightning’s all-time scoring leader for a defenseman.
[protected-iframe id=”74341f4bd1bf7995cb8f48c84aa14d30-114320562-46289989″ info=”https://www.nhl.com/video/embed/drouins-top-shelf-ppg/t-283246636/c-47514503?autostart=false” width=”540″ height=”360″] [protected-iframe id=”5411444596c6727436e639032b763889-114320562-46289989″ info=”//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” class=”twitter-tweet”]Jonathan Drouin‘s last six games include four goals, six pointsand 16 shots.
Ben Bishop had a great save at end of period on Lucic, who was setup by Connor McDavid.
Shots at the end of the second period were 24-17 in favor of the Oilers.
At 2:35 of the third period Tyler Johnson scored his ninth goal of the season and first since December 1 to give the Bolts a 2-1 lead. The goal was assisted by Cory Conacher, his second consecutive game with a point.
[protected-iframe id=”e34d7cc19c47509285473771a32f7efb-114320562-46289989″ info=”https://www.nhl.com/video/embed/johnson-finishes-the-two-on-one/t-283246636/c-47516303?autostart=false” width=”540″ height=”360″]The Oilers tied it up on the power play 2-2 as Draisaitl scored his 14th from Mark Letestu and Sekera at 7:03 with Koekkoek in the box. The goal would force the game into overtime.
[protected-iframe id=”5d2722b6a932e33aa0d224e4f01b9f91-114320562-46289989″ info=”https://www.nhl.com/video/embed/draisaitls-quick-ppg/t-283246636/c-47517003?autostart=false” width=”540″ height=”360″]Shots ended 31-31 through three periods. The Lightning ended up 1-4 on the power play and 4-6 on the penalty kill.
The Bolts clinched at least three of a possible six points on the three-game western Canada trip.
Both teams skated well in a quick overtime period but no one scored as the game went to a shootout.
The Oilers won the shootout 2-1 and the game 3-2 as Connor McDavid and Mark Letestu scored.
Jonathan Drouin scored in the shootout for Tampa Bay.
After the game, goalie Ben Bishop called for an intervention on the penalty kill, calling it “somewhat embarrassing.” “We’ve got to step as players. Enough is enough here. Got to have more passion to kill these penalties. It’s almost embarrassing.” Bishop failed to mention that a save or two more would also help.
Coach Jon Cooper stated, “Courageous effort by our guys, three games in four nights. I thought after the first period we were possibly the better team. We’ve just got to keep gutting games out and hopefully get some of these (injured) guys back and take our game to another level.”
From Joe Smith, Cedric Paquette is day to day with upper body injury. Tanner Richard, 23, was called up from AHL Syracuse and scheduled to make his anticipated NHL debut against the Oilers. But Richard’s 8 a.m. flight out of New York sat on a tarmac for two hours, forcing him to miss his connection in Minneapolis. His scheduled flight to Edmonton was taking off as he arrived.
With the next flight to Edmonton not arriving until after the game, Richard was returned to Syracuse. But it was not in time for the Crunch’s game in Bridgeport. So Richard missed two games in one night.
Richard, a third-round draft pick in 2012, got called up last season, too, and he took part in warmups before being a healthy scratch. He is deserving of an NHL debut this season, having racked up seven goals and 10 assists in 21 games at Syracuse.
Richard was the fourth Crunch forward to get a callup this season. He just never got here.
The Bolts host the Detroit Red Wings at 7:30 PM on Tuesday as they now enjoy seven of eight at home.
[protected-iframe id=”ed7a8e2fa692804f3f521eaa1799a8b9-114320562-46289989″ info=”https://www.nhl.com/video/embed/recap-tbl-2-edm-3-fso/t-277753022/c-47520203?autostart=false” width=”540″ height=”360″]Follow me on Twitter @LightningShout and please “like” LightningShout on Facebook. You can email us at [email protected].
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