Too many turnovers and an unfortunate bounce turned into a 4-0 loss for the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday in an afternoon game against the Boston Bruins at AMALIE Arena.
Boston took advantage of a Lightning turnover to secure the game’s first lead midway through the second period.
Bruin Casey Mittelstadt took the puck away in the Tampa Bay defensive zone and dished to teammate Cole Koepke, who darted in alone on Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy. Koepke attempted to sneak the puck through Vasilevskiy, and an unlucky bounce allowed the puck to find the back of the net 10:32 into the period.
Turnovers hurt Tampa Bay through much of the contest, particularly near the neutral zone.
The Lightning were playing without captain Victor Hedman, who missed the game with a lower-body injury.
Coach Jon Cooper said Tampa Bay has already turned the page on the performance, one he said wasn’t good enough to win in the NHL. His players didn’t disagree with that assessment.
“Turnovers were an all-time high for us in the season, but in the end we got outworked if we're really looking at the big picture here,” defenseman Ryan McDonagh said. “That was a team that simply came in and worked harder than us, and that's the disappointing thing for sure.”
Oliver Bjorkstrand nearly scored his second goal as a Bolt late in the second period as Tampa Bay looked to tie the game, but the puck hit the post and stayed out of the Boston net.
Forward Brandon Hagel had a few quality looks of his own, but Boston goalie Jeremy Swayman kept his clean stat sheet on the way to a 26-save shutout.
Hagel found himself with the puck near the left post four minutes into the third period, but a sprawling Swayman got his stick on the puck, which glanced up into the crossbar and out of the crease to maintain a 1-0 lead.
"Just was one of those that obviously if that goes in, that changes the game. Maybe if that (shot) was a little bit harder. We've just got to turn the page on this one,” Hagel said. “I think it's not the way we play. We know that. They're a good hockey team over there. They competed and played really good tonight, and we just didn't have it.”
Boston finished Saturday’s game with a 26-25 advantage in shots on goal, while the Lightning were hindered by what Cooper said was the team’s highest turnover rate of the season.
Boston extended its lead to 2-0 when Mark Kastelic’s shot from deep redirected off a Lightning defenseman and behind Vasilevskiy, who was leaving his net to play the puck with 6:44 left in the game.
In Cooper’s eyes, the goal summed up the Lightning game.
"They shoot it, hits off our stick and bounces in. If I could just bottle up that moment, that was pretty much 60 minutes of tonight. And so, it's unfortunate we blow an opportunity to try and gain some ground. Now we have to make it up in a couple nights.”
An empty-net goal as well as a late converted rush by Koepke finalized the 4-0 loss. Koepke led all players with two goals.
Hagel paced the Lightning with six shots on goal. Tampa Bay now begins a three-game road trip, beginning with a game in Carolina at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.
"Games like that, when you get outworked like that, I think you can definitely learn from that as a group that this league's not easy to win, and it doesn't matter who's on the other team and what faces they have,” Hagel said. “But at the end of the day, we have a really good hockey team in here, and we all know that. We just know it wasn't our night tonight in a lot of aspects of the game, but that's gonna happen. The quicker we can turn the page on it, the better for the group.”
Benjamin’s Three Stars:
- Jeremy Swayman, BOS (26-save shutout)
- Cole Koepke, BOS (2 goals)
- Casey Mittelstadt, BOS (Assist)
