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Lindback Shines for Lightning in Losing Effort versus Jets |
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“For the Lightning to grab a ‘W’ tonight, they’ll need to play a 60 minute game. Western Conference teams have a knack for grinding games out; combating that won’t be easy.”
Those were my words from just a few hours ago. Call me psychic, if you’d like.
The Tampa Bay Lightning struggled to put together a 60 minute effort on Saturday night, and ultimately dropped a 2-1 overtime decision to the Winnipeg Jets. It was a tale of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde for the Lightning. For the first half of the contest, they were outplayed, outworked, and outmatched. From the midpoint of the second frame onward, Tampa was the better team by a wide margin. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to seal the deal on another home victory. The overtime loss moves the Lightning’s record to 17-10-2.
The fact that Tampa was even afforded the opportunity to tie the game late in the second period and force an overtime frame is due to the efforts of one man, and one man only. Anders Lindback, who started in place of Ben Bishop, was simply phenomenal through the first half of the game while his teammates were asleep at the wheel. He made timely saves and did more than enough to give the Bolts a chance to win.
Blake Wheeler got the offensive party started just 5:25 into the first frame when he tipped a Jacob Trouba point shot past Lindback. His seventh goal of the year gave the Jets a 1-0 lead, and really seemed to suck the life out of the Tampa Bay Times Forum. Unlike the Jets, who managed to sustain a little bit of zone time, the Lightning were stunted at the offensive blue line on nearly every rush. Given Tampa’s recent offensive struggles, frustration doesn’t begin to describe what transpired during the first period on Saturday.
After allowing the Wheeler tally, Lindback was perfect for the remainder of regulation. In that first period alone, he stopped 14 of 15 shots sent his way. To compare, consider that the Bolts only fired five shots on net in the first 20 minutes of play. That’s not a recipe for success at any level, let alone the National Hockey League level.
As mentioned, the Lightning started to pick up their play towards the middle of the second period. Once they started moving their legs, the chances started to appear. With only two seconds (and that’s a generous two seconds) remaining on the clock in the second, Nate Thompson finally beat Al Montoya to knot things up at one. The goal, Thompson’s second of the season, came off a scrambled draw. Marty St. Louis and Radko Gudas somehow got the puck to Thompson, who made no mistake wristing it home.
The momentum gained as a result of the Thompson goal was palpable in the building. When the puck dropped to start the third period, there was a real feeling in the air that the Bolts would be able to manufacture a victory. As the scoreboard shows, they were unable to do that. Every time they did manage to generate a decent scoring chance, Montoya was there. Credit the Jets for defending well, and credit Montoya for playing some very good hockey.
Regulation solved nothing, and so the game moved into the cocktail hour tied at one. Only seconds after Alex Killorn hit the post behind Montoya, Blake Wheeler skated up ice and fed Mark Scheifele who proceeded to tip home his third goal of the season. Just like that, the game was over. The Winnipeg Jets had their 2-1 victory.
While the result was far from perfect, the Lightning can take a little bit of solace in knowing that they did manage to pick up a point. In addition, the play of Anders Lindback, who ended up with 34 saves on 36 shots, certainly leaves the team something to work with as it moves into next week. If Tampa continues to get the kind of goaltending it has received over the last handful of games, the team will be mighty scary once the offense returns to form.
As always, thanks for reading.
Ottawa Senators Blogger • 
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