The Lightning may have gotten away with a leaky defensive performance against Vegas on Tuesday, but they were not able to do it for a second game in a row.
In all three periods, the Avalanche generated high-danger chances and buried those looks.
The first of those came just past the opening minute. Nathan MacKinnon burst into the offensive zone and set up Marty Necas at the right circle. The Lightning lost track of defenseman Devon Toews, who slipped free down the left wing. Necas fed Toews for goal into an open side of the net at 1:02.
Soon after, the Avs received a power play, and they doubled their lead. Nazim Kadri drifted to an open spot at the inner part of the left circle, accepted a feed from T.J. Hughes, and drilled a one-timer between Andrei Vasilevskiy’s pads at 5:52.
The Lightning surrendered a two-on-one on the opening shift of the second period, which led to the Avs’ third goal. Erik Cernak managed to block Fedor Svechkov’s attempted pass, but the puck deflected back towards Svechkov. He adroitly batted it out of the air and into the net twenty-four seconds into the period.
The score was 3-0 at that point. Although the Lightning would manage to tally three goals of their own, each of those scores came when they were down by three. So they never got back to within a goal of the Avs.
Jake Guentzel converted on a power play at 8:13, scoring into an open net after the puck deflected to him.
But the Avs got that goal back. Artturi Lehkonen’s shot from the left circle hit off Cernak and went into the net at 13:57. That play came after the Lightning committed multiple icing infractions. Then, seconds before the goal, Toews muffed a pass, but the puck slipped past Pontus Holmberg’s stick, allowing the Avs to keep the puck in the offensive zone.
The Lightning made it 4-2 at 19:17 when Guentzel finished off a nice passing sequence at the side of the net. The goal came just as a power play expired.
But once again, the Avs had a response. MacKinnon scored off the rush at 4:18 of the third, re-establishing a three-goal lead. Although Charle-Edouard D’Astous finished a chance from the slot at 15:13, the Lightning allowed an empty-netter to Necas just over two minutes later.
Some of the final stats heavily favored Tampa Bay. The Lightning outshot the Avs, 34-24, and held a whopping 77-47 attempt advantage. But don’t be fooled by those numbers. In terms of generating quality chances, the Avs were the more dangerous team.
The Lightning’s power play did convert once—really twice, since Guentzel’s second goal came less than a second after a power play ended—but the Lightning surrendered four other chances. Two of those came soon after they’d scored (including on an unsuccessful missed stoppage challenge on Guentzel’s second goal). But they couldn’t convert, and the deficit remained a multi-goal one.
Unfortunately, the Lightning played almost all of the final two periods without Victor Hedman, who took just one shift in the middle stanza.
The Lightning head to Utah to complete their first set of back-to-back games. They look to have a more buttoned-up defensive outing, as they face a Mammoth team that didn’t play on Friday.
Lightning Radio Three Stars of the Game:
- Nathan MacKinnon — Avalanche. Goal and three assists.
- Artturi Lehkonen — Avalanche. Goal and assist.
- Jake Guentzel — Lightning. Two goals.
