Bolts fall to Winnipeg in narrow defeat

by Gary Shelton on March 13, 2023

in general

Cirelli scored on a short-hander./TIM WIRT

Monday, 4 a.m.

The nosedive of the Tampa Bay Lightning has now entered the "shoulda, coulda" phase.

The Bolts lost once again Sunday night, falling to the Winnipeg Jets, 3-2. The Bolts played fairly well, but they have now won only four times in their last 14 games, an unsettling statistic as the playoffs approach.

In those four wins in their last 14 games, only one has come against a team with as many as 60 points on the season.




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Killorn scored his 20th goal./TIM WIRT

The Bolts' main frustrations were the "four or five" posts that the team hit, according to head coach Jon Cooper, and a blown five-on-three opportunity that came with a chance to tie the game.

"Did we play well enough to win the game?" Cooper said. "We did. Did we have enough scoring chances to win the game? We did."

Still, the Bolts failed to take full advantage of a 35-shot night. It scored on its first shot attempt, the 20th goal of the season by Alex Killorn. And it scored on a short-handed goal by Anthony Cirelli, who left in the second period after a blow to the head.

"The tough part of our game was the couple of breakaways we gave up in the third," Cooper said. "We missed an opportunity by not scoring on the five on three.  And their goalie made saves in the end to win."

Goaltender Andre Vasilevskiy is 1-5 in his last six decisions.

The Bolts next play at the New Jersey Devils in consecutive games. The first of those is Tuesday night at 7 p.m.

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Vasilevskiy has struggled lately./TIM WIRT

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