Another coach, another night, and voices would be raised. Another opponent, another view, and doors would be kicked.
Instead, Jon Cooper was smiling.
And that's how much winning a game matters.
For the second straight night, the Lightning blew a two-goal lead in the third period. That would make most coaches talk about the closing minutes and holding off an opponent. This time, however, the Bolts went on to win a 5-4
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shootout victory over the Minnesota Wild. And suddenly, things don't look so bad.
The Bolts, in fact, blew two two-goal leads Sunday. But they had enough other moments on their way to a victory that came without Brayden Point (injured), Erik Cernak (also injured), Nikita Kucherov (still injured) and Andrei Vasilevskiy (day off).
"Listen, you eventually are going to blow a lead," Cooper said. "I think our record for a number of years now has been pretty good in that regard. To give up the six on five goals .... when (Ondrej Palat) hit the post (on an empty net shot), it was ‘oh no.’ The breaks went the other team’s way in those couple of minutes. Good for them. They earned them. We had a chance to put that game away. The guys pulled out. "
Cooper liked seeing Anthony Cirelli score two goals, and backup goaltender Brian Elliott stop all three shootout tries, and seeing his team kill off a four-on-three penalty in overtime.
"If you're going to talk about giving. up two goals at the end of regulation," Cooper said, "How about the penalty kill in overtime to save the game? There was about a minute and 40 seconds of it. You’ve got to tip your hat to the guys."
Cooper said the team was still waiting on tests to determine how long Point would be out.
The Lightning is home at Amalie Arena Tuesday night against the Philadelphia Flyers. The puck is scheduled to drop at 7 p.m.