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The night could not have started off any better as all in attendance at the Amalie Arena honored Martin St. Louis, one of the greatest ever take the ice for the Tampa Bay Lightning, by making his number 26 jersey the first retired by the franchise.

Unfortunately, the Bolts could not end the night on the same high note as they fell to the Columbus Blue Jackets for the third time this season.

The first period belonged solely to the Lightning. They were able to control the pace of the game for the entire twenty minutes which has been something the team has not done a whole lot this season. The Bolts recorded 19 shots on goal while allowing preventing Columbus from getting much of anything going as they only tallied six shots in the first.

Tampa's intensity and hard work finally paid off when Jonathan Drouin scored off a beautiful dish from Valtteri Filppula for his 13th goal of the season. The Lightning would take that 1-0 lead into the first intermission feeling pretty good about their level of play.

Just as the Lightning maintained control of the game in the first, the same can be said for the Blue Jackets in the second period. Columbus outscored the Bolts in period number two 16-6. In addition, they came away with the only goal of the period thanks to Josh Anderson who recorded his tenth of the season. The goal was a difficult one for Andrei Vasilevskiy to follow as he misjudged where the initial shot would wind up, allowing Anderson the opportunity to put it in the back of the net.

Both teams headed into the second intermission with one goal and one good period to their name.

It would not take the Blue Jackets much time to gain the lead in the third period as Nick Foligno scored his 15th goal of the season on a powerplay 4:29 in. The holding penalty on Tyler Johnson that led to the man-advantage was a very questionable call. It appeared that Boone Jenner was holding Johnson as well but did a better job shielding that from the eyes of the official. It is always unfortunate when questionable calls lead to a goal against.

The Lightning would do everything they could to get the contest tied up before the final horn sounded but eventually would come up short. Although Columbus has been the NHL's top team, Tampa's loss has to be viewed as a disappointment. They started the game off so well with an extremely strong first period. Unfortunately, the Bolts could not maintain that level of play and allowed the Blue Jackets to crawl back into it. Eventually coming away with a 3-1 victory (goal three an empty-netter).

Tampa Bay will now embark on a six-game road trip beginning on Monday evening against the Los Angeles Kings.

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