Sunday, 4 a.m.
Here's the hardest thing about the road.
It's when your face gets slammed into it.
Three days ago, the Western swing of the Tampa Bay Lightning was going along just swimmingly. Then came the final two games, and the Bolts went splat.
On Saturday , they lost their second straight game, 6-3 to Calgary in game they led 2-1. In the previous game, they lost 5-3 to Edmonton in a game that was tied 3-3 going into the third period.
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It was an awful way to end the road trip. In the two games, they Bolts gave up 11 goals, 75 shots and had 1`7 penalties. Their power play went 0-for-8 and they had 30 giveaways.
Yeah, that'll get you beat.
"You need your best players to be your best players," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "They weren’t tonight. When that goes on, it usually doesn’t work out too well for us."
The Bolts were outplayed for much of the night, but second period goals by Steven Stamkos -- finding the net regularly now he is past the 500-goal mark -- and Vlad Namestnikoff gave the Bolts a lead. Calgary scored three straight goals however. After an Anthony Cirelli goal, the Flames scored two empty netters.
The Bolts took six points in their five-game road trip, but none in the final two games.
“If we can win five, lose two, win five, lose two, I’ll take that all day," Cooper sad. "That’ll get us home ice. It’s just frustrating . To drop them both without getting points, that ’s probably not our style. "
Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy faced 41 shots, but four of them got past him. Two of them deflected off teammate Victor Hedman.
The Bolts now return home Tuesday to play a 7 p.m. against Minnesota at Amalie Arena.
