As Jon Cooper stated afterwards, you're not going to win many games giving up four power play goals. Certainly, the Golden Knights' proficiency on the power play (netting those four goals on five power play chances) was a key factor in their victory. But it wasn't the only one.
First of all, let's give some credit to Vegas. The Golden Knights have shown this year that they are an excellent club - they've already set all kinds of milestone records for expansion teams. And Vegas had a strong game against the Lightning on Tuesday. The Golden Knights played with speed, forechecked aggressively and defended hard.
But the Lightning also had a hand in how the game unfolded. They were not as sharp as they had been earlier on the road trip. At points throughout the game - but especially in the second period - the Lightning struggled to move pucks cleanly out of their own zone. (The second was the period in which the Golden Knights rallied from a 2-0 deficit and tied things up.) As mentioned earlier, Vegas' forecheck was tenacious. But the Lightning aided Vegas' effort with some sloppy play. The Bolts may have committed as many icing infractions in this game as they did in the first three games of the trip combined. Many of those came in the second period, a frame that was played primarily in the Tampa Bay defensive zone. Vegas did score two of its power play goals in the second period (and tied the game at two), but the Golden Knights could have had more. They fired 18 shots on Andrei Vasilevskiy and had 32 shot attempts.
After Vegas netted a third power play goal at 4:42 of the third, the Lightning trailed for the first time in the game. But the Lightning did well to push back. Their best overall stretch in the game came in those final 15 minutes. The third period saw the Lightning outshoot the Golden Knights, 16-8. While the Lightning didn't necessarily generate a ton of scoring chances, they had most of the puck possession. (Shot attempts in the third were 22-14 in favor of the Lightning). They did tie the game on Victor Hedman's wrist shot from the left point that dipped past Marc-Andre Fleury, who may have been screened by one of his defensemen. The Hedman goal came with 3:52 left in the third.
In the closing minutes, there were two penalties called, one on each team. Neither club was happy with the penalty it received. The difference was that Vegas had a terrific kill on the Derek Engelland penalty and got through it successfully. For the Lightning, their penalty came at 19:36. They just needed to manage those final seconds in order to force overtime, but they couldn't do it. They had a chance. They won the defensive zone faceoff, but failed the clear the zone. Moments later, the puck was in their net.
So Vegas gets the dramatic win - and the Golden Knights played quite well in earning those two points. For the Lightning, the game, generally, wasn't a smooth one. It's true that it was the final game of a long road trip and one in which they had some players under the weather (Tyler Johnson and Jake Dotchin missed the game due to illness, while others were not feeling 100%). But on the bright side, they did battle back well in the third period against a spirited opponent. And they finished the four-game road trip with three wins and six points.
As they return home to face Ottawa tomorrow, the Lightning will not only look to get back in the win column, they'll need to tighten up a suddenly-leaky penalty kill that has allowed seven goals in the last three games.
Lightning Radio Big Moment of the Game:
Shea Theodore's GWG.
Lightning Radio Three Stars of the Game:
1. Shea Theodore - Golden Knights. Goal and three assists.
2. Victor Hedman - Lightning. Goal and two assists.
3. David Perron - Golden Knights. Three assists.
