Sunday, 4 a.m.
It began as a big day for Brandon Halverson. It ended up being a nightmare.
Halverson, 28, made his NHL debut in goal Saturday afternoon. It didn’t go well. The Utah Hockey Club pummeled Halverson in a 6-4 victory.
Halverson had hoped to make this one of those Cinderella stories. Instead, it will take this one a while to wear off.
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On his afternoon, Halverson:
— Allowed five goals on 24 shots. It would have been worse, but Utah had two goals disallowed after Lightning challenges.
— Allowed a goal on Utah’s third shot of the day. He allowed another on its seventh.
— After the Bolts tied the game 2-2, the deadlock lasted only 26 seconds before Utah scored again.
— After the Bolts tied the game 3-3, the deadline lasted only 30 seconds before Utah scored again.
—Utah scored 40 seconds into the third period to take a 5-3 lead.
“That game was not on him at all,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “He gave us everything he had. The tough part is we didn’t play well enough in front of him. If you’re not going to match their intensity you’ve got no chance. We definitely didn’t match their intensity.
“Right now, we’re like a yo-yo. One good game and one bad.”
Cooper was disappointed the Bolts gave up a go-ahead goal quickly twice after tying the game.
“It’s terrible,” Cooper said. “It popped our ballon a little bit.”
It kept the Bolts in third place in the Atlantic Division race.
Brayden Point scored two goals for the Lightning. He now has 34 on the season, as does Jake Guentzel, who scored one goal. Anthony Cirelli scored his 24th goal.
The Bolts play the Las Vegas Knights tonight at 8 p.m.