TAMPA – In the third period of Tampa Bay’s 5-3 loss to the Washington Capitals on Thursday evening, the Lightning shook off some of the week’s struggles and came from two goals down to tie the Capitals at 3-3 early in the third period.
Capitals center Dylan Strome gathered the puck in the Tampa Bay zone and released it to defenseman Aliaksei Protas, who was behind the net. Protas then skated to the left side and found Rasmus Sandin in the middle of the zone. He released the puck past Tampa Bay goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy to allow Washington to regain the lead at 4-3 at the 15:01 mark of the third period.
“You fall behind,” Cooper said. “It’s a tough league to come back in. We did it. Basically, it’s a tie game with five minutes to go and you don’t get any points out of it. That’s a tough pill to swallow.”
It’s been a difficult week as the Bolts have lost three games; thus not been able to pick up any points. They settled into eighth place in the Eastern Conference with last night’s loss combined with Detroit’s 2-1 overtime win over Colorado.
In addition, defensemen Erick Cernak and Mikhail Sergachev were out last night with injuries as Tampa Bay
“I thought the guys deserved a little bit better fate than what they got tonight, but you can’t go back in time,” explained Cooper. “The bottom line is, we gave up four goals. It’s really hard to win in this league when you are giving up four.”
Florida defeated the Lightning, 9-2, last Saturday before Ottawa doubled Tampa Bay, 4-2, on Tuesday. The Lightning started the third period with renewed aggression, a sense of trying to come from behind to pick up points and stop the streak of two losses.
Lightning forward Nicholas Paul and center Tyler Motte scored early in the period, just 24 seconds apart. Paul gathered the puck in the neutral zone on the right side of the ice and drove by Washington’s Ethan Bear. Paul then caused goalie Charlie Lindgren to move and he pushed the puck behind Lindgren to cut the score to 3-2.
As Tampa Bay has worked to improve throughout the season and get to the point where they conceivably could solidify their playoff position, the 0-3-0 record this week has made for a tough homestand after a 6-3 win over the Avalanche on Feb. 15.
“We just knew what we had to do to win the game and unfortunately, we came out hard and we fell short,” said Paul. “We just have to move fast now and focus on these games and bearing down.’
Then at 3:06, Motte was able to gather the puck just to the left of the right circle where he fired the game-tying goal over Lindgren’s left shoulder.
“We just knew what we had to do to win the game and unfortunately, we came out hard and we fell short,” said Motte. “We just have to move fast now and focus on these games and bearing down.”
The Lightning must find its high level of play once again when embarking on a three-game road trip at the Islanders, New Jersey, and Philadelphia which starts Saturday and ends on Tuesday.
“Aside from the Florida game, we have been in the last two and if we don’t, we have to find a way to tighten up in our own end and some of these last chances we have given up have cost us,” Cooper noted. “We have to turn the page and move on and look at three big games on this road trip with teams that are surrounding us in the standings.”
Cooper also explained how the Bolts had put themselves in position to defeat the Capitals as they moved forward in being able to come from behind and tie the game before the dreaded loss.
“Our guys competed hard,” said Cooper. “Did we do some dumb things? We did. It doesn’t take away the fact we competed hard. The bottom line is, Did we have a chance to win the game? We most certainly did.”
