Friday, 3 a.m.
They were staring disappointment in the face. They were shaking hands with the miserable.
Instead, the Tampa Bay Lightning, somehow, have won a hockey game.
The Bolts, who trailed by three goals with 6:17 to play, charged from behind to beat the Detroit Red Wings 7-6 in overtime Thursday night. Ondrej Palat sired his second goal 2:43 into overtime. The Bolts are 22-2-2 in their last 26 games against Detroit.
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The Bolts are a long way from competing for a third straight Stanlely Cup championship. For instance, they've given up 12 goals in two games (they gave up just 2.59 goals per game last season, sixth fewest in the NHL).
But the Bolts'
"I”m going to be honest," said Lightning coach Jon Cooper. "To me, the right team won the game. There were a lot of things we couldn’t control. We could control some of our play. There are some thing we need to work on, but in the end, we gave ourselves a chance to win. It was probably long odds for us to win midway through the third. The a gamesmanship and work our team put in for the first 50 came through in the last 10.
"There's a little bit of a winning pedigree in that locker room. They've shown that fight before."
Ross Colton scored with 6:47 left to bring the Bol to within 6-4. Nikita Kucher ov scoped with 3:35 to play to narrow the deficit to one. Alex Killorn tied it with 2:39 to play. Then came Palat's winner.
"Whoever had Tampa Bay Lighing money line down 6-3, he's probably pretty happy," Lightning captain Steven Stamkos said. "I don't know how to explain that one. That was a weird game."
The Bolts fell behind 4-1 before Steven Stamkos scored two goals to bring the team within one. But the Red Wings stretched their lead out. Todd Bertuzzi had four goals for Detroit.
"We battled uphill pretty much the whole game," said defenseman Victor Hedman. "But it was a lot better than against Pittsburgh. We have some things we have to clean up still. There aren't a lot of teams that can come back from three goals down and win. It says a lot about the character in this room."
The Wings got a break when captain Dylan Larkin was called for sucker punching David Joseph. He was ejected from the game, but the Bolts had two players sent to the penalty box.
"For us to come out of that (down) four on three is mind-boggling to see," Cooper said.
The Bolts plays in Washington against the Capitals Saturday night. The puck I scheduled to drop at 7 p.m.