Bolts look to shake off Game 3 mistakes

In the NHL playoffs, the prevailing thought remains: Take care of business at home and grab one of the two road games over the first four contests and your team should be well on its way to advancing.
So despite a loss Monday night in Game 3 of its Eastern Conference Quarterfinal series against New Jersey, Tampa Bay is still right where it needs to be heading into Wednesday's pivotal Game 4 at Prudential Center.

The Bolts win that one, and the third-period debacle in Game 3 where they surrendered a 2-1 lead to the Devils by allowing four-consecutive goals, aided by numerous ill-advised penalties, will be all but forgotten.
"We still feel like we're in a good spot in the series," Lightning defenseman Ryan McDonagh said following the Bolts' practice Tuesday at Prudential Center. "What happened in the third period is stuff that we can control. They made some plays ultimately in those situations, but we keep ourselves within our system and playing the right way, we feel we've got a good chance."
The Lightning had the Devils right where they wanted them in the third period of Monday's Game 3. The Bolts held a 2-1 lead in the final period following Steven Stamkos' power-play tally 38 seconds into the third. But back-to-back penalties to Cedric Paquette for tripping in the offensive zone and a bench minor for too many men on the ice gave New Jersey a 5-on-3 power play for a full minute, which it was able to convert when Will Butcher powered a shot from the top of the right circle through a screen and past Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy 24 seconds into the two-man advantage. Penalties continued to derail any momentum the Lightning built in the third, and Stefan Noesen's one-timer from the left circle at 12:55 proved to be the game-winner.

New Jersey added a pair of shorthanded goals in the final minute to make the final score look worse than the result actually was.
"To be honest, I thought we pretty much controlled that game right up to the power play right before they scored their first goal, and even then that was a gift," Tampa Bay head coach Jon Cooper said. "We've done that on a couple of occasions now in this playoff. We just pass the puck and get the primary assist giving it to their best player. We know better. Even after that we kind of weathered the storm. We score that goal early in the third, but putting us down 5-on-3, that was another mental error on our part that we kind of got out of. We got out (of the 5-on-3) tied. Again, don't mind our game. I think we had that crazy scramble there in front where blown away we didn't score, and we come out of it taking another penalty. It was just too many self-inflicted wounds, and eventually they scored."
That's the thing about Game 3: Despite the loss, the Lightning liked a lot about what they were able to do in the contest. Facing a desperate Devils team down 2-0 in the series and playing in front of their home fans for the first time, Tampa Bay weathered the early push it expected from the Devils and came out of the opening period with more shots on goal and a scoreless game.
Alex Killorn scored a power-play goal right out of the first intermission, 42 seconds into the second period, to give the Bolts the opening goal for the third-consecutive game to start the series. Even after New Jersey tied the game on Taylor Hall's second marker of the postseason midway through the second period, the Lightning continued to control play for good stretches of the gmae and owned a 28-21 shots advantage through 40 minutes.
"We were skating. We got the puck. We were taking strides before looking to make a play," Bolts forward J.T. Miller said when asked what he liked about his team's play in Game 3. "We were getting behind them, getting pucks to the point, getting traffic to the net. It's a simple game sometimes when things are working like that, and I think for 50 minutes of that game we were doing that. Obviously penalty troubles kind of swung the momentum for them and the game didn't finish how we wanted to."

The key for the Lightning in Game 4 is to build off of the positives from Monday night while eliminating the self-inflicted mistakes that turned a potential win into a three-goal loss.
"You're trying to win every game obviously, but it's 2-1 in the series, we've got another game tomorrow, trying to make it 3-1, that's where the focus is now," Bolts center Brayden Point said. "You can't look back at Game 3. You can look back at things you can correct, but you've got to forget about it really. They played well. They executed their game plan. We've just got to do ours in Game 4."
INJURY UPDATES: Ryan Callahan (upper-body injury) and Tyler Johnson (body maintenance) did not participate in Tuesday's practice session, and it appears both will be game-time decision for Game 4.
Cooper said he's hopeful Johnson will be able to play on Wednesday.
"We'll have to see in the morning if he's going to be alright," the coach said.
Callahan missed his first game of the series after sustaining an injury near the end of the second period in Game 2 and sitting out Game 3 in New Jersey.
As for Adam Erne, who missed the final six games of the regular season due to a lower-body injury and has yet to appear in the playoffs, Cooper said he won't be ready to return in time for the series against the Devils.