Sunday, 4 a.m.
It’s tough to take a penalty in a tie game.
In overtime, it can be death.
The Tampa Bay Lightning dropped a 3-2 overtime game to the New Jersey Devils Saturday night,
The deciding play came when forward Nick Paul was called for tripping Jack Hughes at the 1:44 mark. At 3:19, Stefan Noesen scored on the power play for the winning goal.
Content beyond this point is for members only.
Already a member? To view the rest of this column, sign in using the handy "Sign In" button located in the upper right corner of the GarySheltonSports.com blog (it's at the far right of the navigation bar under Gary's photo). Not a member? It's easy to subscribe so you can view the rest of this column and all other premium content on GarySheltonSports.com.
The Devils controlled most of the play in the first two periods, taking a 1-0 lead on a goal by former Bolt Ondrej Palat and going ahead 2-1 on a goal by Hughes.
Tampa Bay tied the game on a goal by Victor Hedman and then again on a goal by Nikita Kucherov. It was Kucherov’s 18th goal of the season.
“How many shots on goal did they have in the third period?” Lightning coach Jon Cooper asked. “They had one. Our game progressed. The problem was we probably didn’t start on time tonight. The goalie had a hell of a game. We had our chances in the third. Their goalie made saves.. Unfortunately, we took a penalty. Even that was on a broken play.”
The Bolts continued to have trouble scoring. They’ve managed just 14 goals in their last seven games.
Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy fell to 18-10-1 on the season. He stopped 22 of 25 shots.
The Bolts play at Pittsburgh today at 5 p.m.