Bolts blow two-goal lead, lose to Ottawa

by Gary Shelton on November 11, 2018 · 0 comments

in general

Hedman scored in his first game back from injury. / CHUCK MULLER

Sunday, 3 a.m.

It was late in the evening, and the Tampa Bay Lightning seemed to have things well in hand in their game against Ottawa.

For one thing, they were at home. For another thing, they had survived another slow start. They had Andrei Vasilevskiy in goal and a two-goal lead on the scoreboard.

And then it vanished. All of it.

The Bolts had their four-game winning streak snapped in a 6-4 fall-from-ahead game Saturday night. Tampa Bay had fallen behind 2-0 early, but rallied to take a 4-2 lead after two periods. Then the Bolts gave up four in the third period, the most they have given up in one period all season.

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Lightning's Cooper calls a timeout late in the third period./CHUCK MULLER

"It's a tough loss," said Mathieu Joseph, who scored twice for the Bolts. "I mean I feel like we had control of this game the whole time. One after another they went in. I'm part of it.  I took a penalty there into the stands and it changed the momentum of the game. Something I can't do in 4-3 games. It's bad by me and they took advantage and after that we just couldn't recoup."

Vasilevskiy had won three straight games, but on Saturday night he gave up six goals on 34 shots.

Vasilevskiy extends for a puck in the second period./CHUCK MULLER

"It's a tough pill to swallow," Cooper said of the loss. "It's kind of a perfect storm against us. Kid makes a good tip that goes in the perfect spot, all of a sudden it's a tie game. That was a really good shot. The one by Dzingel there, now you're chasing it and that's what happens.

"This team does a heck of a job. They close out a lot of games. Some guys had a really good effort. Obviously, that Cirelli line is outstanding and it's good to see those guys put some pucks in the net for us because they've earned that and now they got rewarded. "

Said defenseman Victor Hedman:  "We got our chances to tie the game up, but they finished it off in the end. That's how it goes sometimes. You can't win them all, but obviously it stings to have a two goal lead at home and lose it."

Besides Joseph's goal, the Bolts got goals from Hedman and from Braydon Coburn.

Tampa Bay now goes on the road with a Tuesday night trip to Buffalo. The puck is scheduled to drop at 7:30 p.m.

Lightning's Johnson sends Tkachuk sprawling./CHUCK MULLER

 

 

 

 

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