2. REMARKABLE SHOT DISPARITY
A look at the final shot tally would lead one to believe the Lightning dominated the Stars Thursday night.
They would be right.
The only place the Lightning didn't control the Stars, however, was on the scoreboard.
Tampa Bay's 48 shots were tied for the most it's put up this season, matching shot totals from wins over Pittsburgh October 23 and at Florida December 10. And it wasn't just one period where the Lightning were doing most of their damage. They were consistently outshooting and outchancing the Stars, the Bolts putting up 17 shots in the first period, 14 in the second and 16 in the third.
Conversely, the Lightning held Dallas to just 20 total shots, including overtime. The 20 shots were the fewest the Bolts have allowed to an opponent this season.
Yet, the Stars were able to make good on their few scoring opportunities and the Lightning left goals on the table by failing to connect on some prime chances.
"I thought we played pretty well tonight," Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. "They didn't have very many chances and it seemed like they capitalized on every one, and we just didn't capitalize near enough on ours. You've heard me say this line time and time again, you give up three, the game's going to be in the balance. It didn't go our way tonight. But a game like tonight, we got three, we probably should have won this game."
Radek Faksa's goal at 17:57 of the second period was a killer for the Lightning. Tampa Bay pushed its lead to 3-1 at 3:22 of the second when Ondrej Palat tipped Mikhail Sergachev's shot past Dallas goalie Anton Khudobin. The Lightning continued to clamp down on the Stars, holding them to basically zilch for the remainder of the period while the Bolts continued to buzz around Khudobin's net.
But with time winding down in the second, the Stars started a rush - one of their only of the period - into the Lightning zone and John Klingberg found Faksa in the slot, Faksa beating Vasilevskiy, who had only seen four shots in the period up to that point.
"We were good defensively, we just gave them a couple chances and they scored," said Bolts defenseman Mikhail Sergachev, who recorded a goal and assist in the loss.
Faksa's goal allowed the Stars to hang around in the game. When the Lightning weren't able to extend their lead, an uneasy feeling settled over AMALIE Arena.
The fans were right to be nervous.
With 4:18 to go in regulation, Dickinson finished off Cogliano's shot that beat Vasilevskiy to tie the game 3-3. From there, it almost felt like the Lightning had to hold on just to get one point out of the game.
"We got a lot of chances, we've just got to bear down and score goals," Sergachev said. "That's a problem. Outside of that, we didn't give them much I thought. We played good enough."