The combination of one defensive breakdown and some bad puck luck was ultimately enough to derail the Tampa Bay Lightning on Friday afternoon. Failing to notch their eighth straight win at the Tampa Bay Times Forum, the Bolts were stymied by the Pittsburgh Penguins and fell by a score of 3-0. The loss moves the Lightning’s record to 16-9-1, good enough for third place in the Eastern Conference.
Despite playing very well and matching up nicely against the Penguins to start the game, Tampa found itself behind 1-0 just seven minutes in. One instance of sloppy Lightning defensive coverage was all Sidney Crosby needed to find Chris Kunitz, who wristed home his twelfth goal of the season.
The Penguins’ one goal lead remained through the second period and about half of the third despite the fact that both teams generated numerous scoring chances. Both Marc-Andre Fleury and Ben Bishop were incredibly solid all afternoon. It wasn’t until the 8:27 mark of the third frame that Pittsburgh scored its insurance marker.
With Mark Barberio off for delay-of-game, Brandon Sutter, who was standing behind the goal line, sent the puck off Victor Hedman’s skate and past Bishop to extend his team’s lead to two. Having been unable to convert on great opportunities through the first 48-ish minutes of play, it was only fitting that the Lightning were dealt a backbreaker in such unlucky fashion. Chris Kunitz later added an empty netter, his second goal of the game, to cap the Penguins’ win at 3-0.
Defeat is never an easy thing to deal with, but there are a number of positives for the Lightning to take out of the team’s shutout loss. Nikita Kucherov, who continues to impress during this stint with the Lightning, was electric once again, Bishop looked every bit like a goaltender Dan Bylsma might be able to trust in Sochi, JT Brown played arguably his best game of the season, and a number of the Bolts' top players manufactured chances against a very good Penguins team.
Regardless of the result, Lightning head coach Jon Cooper can’t be terribly unhappy with the way his team played on Friday. Matching up against the Penguins has been a challenge for Tampa over the last couple of years. At least it didn’t look like men against boys this time around; the Bolts presented the Penguins with a legitimate challenge.
The Lightning now have a few days off before heading to Columbus to take on the Blue Jackets on Tuesday night.
As always, thanks for reading.