The Backcheck: Bolts suffer first loss of the trip to Oilers

The Tampa Bay Lightning's five-game winning streak came to an end Thursday night with a 5-3 loss to the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place.

After the Bolts skated to a 5-2 win over the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday night, the team arrived at the hotel in Edmonton around 3:30 a.m. Thursday morning before taking on an Oilers team at 7 p.m. that hadn't played since Tuesday. It was going to be an uphill battle from the start, but despite falling into a multi-goal deficit on two separate occasions, Tampa Bay put up a strong fight and went into the third period with the game tied at three.
Whether it was fatigue for the Bolts or not, the Oilers got the first goal of the third period just 2:10 into the frame and were able to keep the Lightning off the scoreboard before adding an empty-net goal to secure the 5-3 win.

"They played hard," said Tampa Bay head coach Jon Cooper when asked about his team's performance on Thursday night. "I really liked our second. We made a mistake on McDavid's goal on the end. We were just a little tentative in the play.
"He finds a way. Most guys probably don't score that, but he finds a way to do those things. That's why he's a special player.
"We lacked a little push down the stretch there. We had the one power play that obviously didn't work out for us.
"Everybody goes through these. You get into a hotel at 3:30 in the morning and a back-to-back, those are tough. But we fought to the end. It was a good game. I was just disappointed we didn't get any points out of this."
The Bolts were a little sluggish to start the game in Edmonton, getting outshot 10-2 through the first 15 minutes of the period. Ryan McLeod gave the Oilers a 1-0 lead at the 6:13 mark of the first when a point shot deflected off his leg.
Then the Oilers went on the power play about 10 minutes later and made it 2-0 with Leon Draisaitl scoring on a one-timer just 12 seconds into the man advantage. Trailing 2-0 going into the first intermission on the second half of a back-to-back, the Lightning could have easily rolled over right then, but instead, the team responded in a big way with a very strong second period to get the game even before the start of the third period.
Just 1:30 into the middle frame, Alex Killorn rifled a wrist shot off the post before Brandon Hagel jumped on the rebound and got a wrist shot past Jack Campbell for his 18th goal of the season. Hagel has now recorded points in six straight games and nine of his last 10 contests. He has 26 points over his last 25 games with 13 goals and 13 helpers.
Edmonton answered just 1:38 later with Zach Hyman giving the Oilers another two-goal lead.
But again, the Bolts refused to quit and made it a one-goal game at the 7:51 mark of the second with Steven Stamkos ripping a one-timer off a pass from Brayden Point for his 22nd goal of the year to make it 3-2.
Stamkos has been on a tear for Tampa Bay and is riding a seven-game point streak with four goals over his last two games. The captain has recorded points in 13 of his last 14 games and 27 of his last 30.
With 7:53 left in the second, Point scored his team-leading 27th goal of the season off another beautiful, tic-tac-toe passing play with Hedman and Kucherov picking up the helpers. After gaining entry into the Edmonton zone, Point dropped a pass to Kucherov, who sent a perfect backhand dish right onto Hedman's tape at the left point.

Hedman, who saw Point driving the net, one-touched the puck right to the back door where Point redirected it top shelf, bar down, to tie the game at three.
Going into the third period on the road with the game tied was a great spot for Tampa Bay, especially on the second half of a back-to-back. But Connor McDavid scored just 2:10 into the final frame and the Lightning couldn't find a way to get a fourth goal after that.
"We just couldn't sustain it," said Cooper on the momentum gained in the second period. "I think the fact that they scored two minutes into the third period probably took a little bit of jump out of our step.
"That might've been the disappointing part, is that we couldn't push after that. But like you said, we were down two twice. That's a problem going down two twice, but the fact that we came back, and it was going to be a one-goal game, but they ended up getting the one they needed."
It was a strong effort from the Bolts, especially given the circumstances. Despite the loss, Tampa Bay has still collected six points through four games of the season-long, five-game road trip. They'll have an opportunity to turn a good road trip into a great one on Saturday afternoon when they battle the Calgary Flames at 3 p.m. ET.