Sunday, 5 a.m.
It is true that the Tampa Bay Lightning went 52 minutes without scoring Saturday night.
Yeah, but did you see some of those passes?
An old bugaboo — the overpass — came back to haunt the Bolts in their 4-2 loss to the Dallas Stars.
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The Bolts, who led 2-1 early and were tied 2-2 going into the third, seized up in the final period. They got off only seven shots — and no goals — in the final period. Dallas, the top goals-against team in the NHL, won on goals by Matt Duchene and Roope Hintz..
It was the second straight loss by the Bolts. It also snapped a three-game winning streak by Andrei Vasilevskiy, who gave up four goals on 28 shots.
“What changed was one team tried to make six passes and put a puck in the net,” said Lightning coach Jon Cooper. “The other team made two passes and threw it in the net. One team waited for the other to make a mistake. They did. And the other team capitalized on it. That was it. We blinked first and we lost.
“It’s almost like the goals don’t count unless they make the highlight reel. We haven’t quite figured out that if the puck crosses the goal line in between the pipes, it counts. It doesn’t have to be an all-world play. That for sure hurt us tonight.”
The Bolts took a 2-1 lead early behind two goals by Anthony Cirelli, who has scored in five straight games.
Dallas has allowed two or fewer goals 12 times in 19 games.
The Bolts play at home Monday night at 7 p.m. against Colorado.