Monday, 4 a.m.
The difference, at the moment, is the third period. That’s where the Tampa Bay Lightning has been mortal.
For two straight games now, the Bolts have seen a tied game turn into a ragged loss. On Friday night, the Bolts lost to Minnesota despite a 1-1 tie in the third. That was before the Bolts gave up four goals in the third, including two empty-netters, in a 5-3 loss. Then came Sunday’s loss. The Bolts were tied 3-3 with Winnipeg going into the third. That was before the Bolts gave up four goals in third, including two empty-netters, in a 7-4 loss.
The Bolts took a 2-0 lead, but gave the lead back with sloppy play in their own half.
“It’s tough,” Bolts’ coach Jon Cooper said. “It’s kind of been the story of us as of late. We’re playing pretty well. You can go into winning streaks and make mistakes and they don’t go into the net. There are times you make a mistake and they always end up in your net. I think we’re in a little bit of that now.
We just made some really tough errors. When you’re giving up the goals we’re giving up on the road, its tough to win. The last two games we’ve been tied going into the third, and we end up with no points. If you want to go far in this league, you have to come up with points.
We have to pull some points out of these games.”
The Bolts jumped to a 2-0 lead on goals by Brayden Point and Brandon Hagel. But the Jets tied the game.
The Bolts also got goals from Mitchell Chaffee and Nikita Kucherov, his 10th. But the Jets scored the game’s final three goals.
The Bolts are at the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday night at 8 p.m.