Wednesday, 4 a.m.
It's tough to lose in overtime. It's tougher to do it again.
The Tampa Bay Lightning lost, got a break, and then lost again on Tuesday night in a 2-1 overtime game against the Carolina Hurricanes. The Hurricanes seemed to score the winning goal on a shot by Brady Skjei with 1:39 gone in overtime, but the goal was negated by an offside penalty. Two minutes later, however, Martin Necas scored the winning goal for the hot Hurricanes.
The Bolts fell to 6-3-3, tied for third in the Atlantic Division.
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Tampa Bay had just 18 shots on goal for the game: three in the first period, eight in the second, six in the third and one in overtime.
Yes, the Bolts will tell you they had chances to win this one. They led 1-0 halfway through the third period when a controversial call for goaltender interference occurred, leading to the tying goal on the ensuing power play. But the Bolts were outshot 31-18 and lost in both face-offs and hits.
The Bolts power play was ineffective in four attempts.
"That was arguably the difference," said Lightning coach Jon Cooper. "Our penalty kill was outstanding, especially that five-on-three. We had seven plus minutes on the power play and one shot on goal. We didn’t get a lot of zone time. Our power play needs to be better. No question. We’re not saying we’ve got to score every time, but we need possession time and momentum."
For many, the discussion will be about another goaltender interference call against Stamkos that led to Carolina tying the game.
“I did not get an explanation," Stamkos said. "I think it was just a bang-bang pay and he didn’t see it. He saw the goalie down and he saw me down and he just guessed at what happened. If he saw it, he would have seen I got pushed in. It’s frustrating because it's a 1-0 game and they score on that power play to get back in it. At the same time, tt happens fast. It isn’t always going to go your way."
Said Cooper: "There’s nothing to challenge. Again, everybody saw what happened. He got pushed into him. The ref later said he might have saw it wrong. It happens in a fast game. But you’ve got to kill it off and we didn’t."
The Bolts will play at home Saturday night against Florida. The puck is scheduled to drop at 7 p.m.