On the night Rick Bowness passed Scotty Bowman for the most games coached in NHL history, the Tampa Bay Lightning could only walk away from their game against the Wild with one point as they fell in a shootout 2-1.
Hanging in There
After two straight hard-fought victories at home, everyone knew that taking on the Western Conference leading Minnesota Wild would be far from a walk in the park for the Lightning. Still, Tampa Bay managed to stick with their opponent throughout the entirety of the contest.
For most of this season, the Bolts' have suffered from "momentum killers" and Nino Niederreiter's goal 14:31 into the second period could have been just that. However, Tampa was able to respond quite quickly with a deflection goal from Brayden Point, that I don't think even he knew went in.
Unfortunately, the Lightning were only able to "hang" with the Wild. The team was never able to establish control and gain the lead. Although it is too bad, it can be expected when you are taking on one of the best goaltenders in the entire National Hockey League.
Standing on His Head
Speaking of great goaltending, Devan Dubnyk wasn't the only netminder to have a stellar game last night. Andrei Vasilevskiy played an unbelievably, stopping 37 of 38 shots in regulation. He was the main reason the Bolts were able to stay in the game and take it to a shootout.
With Ben Bishop starting to heat up, it was imperative for Vasilevskiy that he do the same. If the Bolts can string some more points together before the deadline, it will be interesting to see if the organization has enough faith in Vasilevskiy to trade away Bishop.
A Quality Performance
Yes, the Lightning only walked away from last night's game with one point when two would have really gone a long way. Still, Tampa Bay needs to be pleased with coming out of a contest against such a talented opponent with something.
It will still be an uphill battle but the Lightning are now six points behind the second wild card spot and seven points behind third place in the Atlantic Division.
On Tap
There will be no rest for Tampa Bay as they take on the Jets in Winnipeg tonight.
Have a question you would like answered in Sunday's "Lightning Mailbag"? Just send it to me at johngove21@gmail.com with the subject line "HockeyBuzz Lightning Mailbag".