The back-and-forth was constant\u2014and quick\u2014in Saturday\u2019s Music City matinee, an NHL show that ended as a 5-4 shootout loss for the Tampa Bay Lightning despite numerous leads.<\/p>\n
The Nashville Predators utilized a rush attack to erase multiple one-goal deficits and then grabbed the extra standings point on the game-deciding goal from Steven Stamkos in the fourth round of the shootout.<\/p>\n
Tampa Bay is now 8-3-2 this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s just a little miscommunication on the ice, and it cost us tonight,\u201d coach Jon Cooper said. \u201cSo it\u2019s too bad. We let a point slip away.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reid Schaefer gave Nashville a 1-0 lead on a rush chance, when his shot from the right circle landed inside the left goalpost 11:14 into the game.<\/p>\n
John Carlson tied the game with a shot-pass to the net that was deflected home by a Predators player covering Charle-Edouard D\u2019Astous mere minutes after the Schaefer score.<\/p>\n
Tampa Bay regained the lead multiple times but couldn\u2019t pull away\u2014Carlson earned his second point of the night when Jake Guentzel deflected his point shot for the 2-1 goal just 18 seconds into the middle frame, but the Predators tied the game 27 seconds later on another odd-man rush.<\/p>\n
Such odd-man rushes were frequent for the Predators.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome eager beavers out there at times, thinking you can make a play, and sometimes you have to be in a position to just cut the bait and live to see another day,\u201d Cooper said. \u201cAnd in the last little bit here, we haven’t done that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tampa Bay prides itself on its defensive game, but it wasn\u2019t good enough on Saturday in Nashville. Carlson and Brayden Point both referenced how the Lightning have allowed opponents to fight back on the scoresheet over the past several games.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had the lead in those last three or four games too, so I think that\u2019s a contributing factor. They\u2019re sending more guys, they\u2019re playing with a little more north feeling than they would\u2019ve otherwise, too,\u201d Carlson said. \u201cBut we\u2019re all good enough to understand where we\u2019re at in the game and diagnose the team and the reads. Obviously there\u2019s some unlucky stuff in there, but we think of ourselves as a really good defensive team, and we\u2019ve just been giving up too many goals the last few games.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kucherov\u2019s third assist of the night came 3:23 into the period. His pass found captain Victor Hedman in the high slot for a top-shelf shot that regained the Lightning lead.<\/p>\n
“That’s Kucherov. Just watch him,\u201d Cooper said. \u201cHe’s a proud Bolt, and he came in tonight to help us win a hockey game as he’s done his whole career here. He gave us a heck of a chance, it’s too bad we couldn’t pull that one out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scoring quieted for a bit before Nashville tied the game in the closing seconds of the period. Defenseman Jayden Struble found open ice in the left circle and buried a short-side shot to make it a 3-3 game.<\/p>\n
The script flips continued in the third period, as Conor Geekie pushed his goalscoring streak to three games and made it 4-3 Lightning with his in-tight shot following a spinning Jeff Viel feed behind the net.<\/p>\n
Less than five minutes later, a Steven Stamkos power-play rebound goal evened the score once again.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a combination of a few things,\u201d Hedman said of not being able to hold onto a lead. \u201cOdd-man rushes, obviously we want to get that kill at the end there in the third. But they\u2019re a fast team. They play with a lot of pace, and when you get beat, they\u2019ve got two guys coming through the middle pretty fast. They got us twice, so it\u2019s something we\u2019ve got to clean up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy was tested repeatedly in the third period and helped the game reach overtime despite the visitors being outshot 13 to seven. More looks arrived in overtime, but neither team found the back of the net.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Stamkos ended the game on his shootout goal, roofing a backhand look.<\/p>\n
Kucherov led Tampa Bay with three points, and Carlson finished with a pair. Vasilevskiy made 29 saves on a night the Lightning went 0-for-3 on the power play and 2-for-3 on the penalty kill.<\/p>\n
The team returns home for a two-game stay, beginning with Tuesday\u2019s 7 p.m. clash against the Detroit Red Wings. It\u2019s Tampa Bay’s first Atlantic Division contest of the year, and they know they\u2019ll need to be better defensively.<\/p>\n
\u201cBlowing the lead, it’s happened the last couple of games to us,\u201d Point said. \u201cIt almost bit us against Winnipeg and it happened again tonight. It\u2019s something that we\u2019re obviously going to have to look at and take more pride in shutting the game down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Benjamin\u2019s Three Stars:\u00a0<\/p>\n
1. Steven Stamkos, NSH (Goal, SO Winner)<\/p>\n
2.\u00a0Nikita Kucherov, TBL (3 assists)<\/p>\n
3. John\u00a0Carlson, TBL (Goal, assist)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The back-and-forth was constant\u2014and quick\u2014in Saturday\u2019s Music City matinee, an NHL show that ended as a 5-4 shootout…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":443841,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-443840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=443840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/443841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=443840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=443840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=443840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}