How the Lightning fell apart late in home overtime loss to Sabres
TAMPA — For most of Thursday’s game against the Sabres, the Lightning felt like they played well enough to win.
Despite carrying a one-goal lead into the third period, penalties allowed Buffalo back into it.
Tage Thompson’s power-play goal with 8:27 remaining in regulation, which came after a high-sticking call on Brayden Point, tied the score. And after Thompson got a step on Nikita Kucherov in 3-on-3 overtime, prompting a hooking call on the Lightning right wing, Buffalo defenseman Rasmus Dahlin’s 4-on-3 goal 1:42 into overtime sent the Lightning to a 3-2 loss.
“The game came down to too many penalties and a couple mental mistakes and they took advantage,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “And this league’s too good for you to be able to do that and get away with it.”
After winning eight straight at home, they’ve lost four in a row at Amalie Arena (0-3-1). With 20 games remaining in the regular season, the Lightning (32-24-6, 60 points) are clinging to the eighth and final playoff spot by six points over the Devils and Islanders, even though both teams have played three fewer games than Tampa Bay.
“We need the points,” Point said. “So it’s tough to lose the points. ... I think we carried a lot of the play and did a lot of good things, and then took a penalty and they scored on it. And then took one in OT and they scored on it.”
Here’s how the Lightning fell apart in the third period.
Couldn’t close out
The Lightning entered the night 23-1-2 when leading after two periods, and rookie forward Mitchell Chaffee’s tip-in in front gave the Lightning a 2-1 lead with 2:42 remaining in the second. Chaffee has settled in nicely on Anthony Cirelli’s two-way line along with Mikey Eyssimont to form a unit that plays a strong 200-foot game and is a pain to square off against.
Chaffee does a lot of the little things well. He wins puck battles, he’s physical and he blocks shots. He had three blocked shots and three hits Thursday.
But the Lighting couldn’t extend the lead. They had just 12 shot attempts in 14:43 of 5-on-5 time in the third period. And despite five scoring chances, and two high-danger ones, Buffalo goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (21 saves) stood tall in net.
“We had a lot of chances,” Chaffee said. “I think you just don’t get some of those bounces some nights and it’s kind of felt like that was one of those nights.”
Special teams meltdown
The penalty against Point was a tough call — he was chasing the puck into the offensive zone when his stick blade caught Alex Tuch in the face trailing behind him — but it was a fair one.
And the Lightning played the penalty kill well before they were caught on a bad line change, allowing Thompson space at the left dot and time to rifle a slap shot through a screen Jeff Skinner created skating in front of Andrei Vasilevskiy. His shot beat Vasilevskiy short side over his blocker.
Less than a minute later, the Lightning were rewarded a power play when Jordan Greenway was whistled for hooking, but registered no shots on goal on the power play. Tampa Bay’s power-play unit is 3-for-20 (15%) over the last 20 games.
“I took a penalty there, kind of an unfortunate one,” Point said. “The guy’s behind me but it’s still a high stick and then they score on it and then we get the chance to come back with a power play of our own and then we don’t execute, so that part hurts for sure.”
Bad breaks, overtime mistakes
The Lightning had possession time in OT, but couldn’t manufacture a shot on goal in the 3-on-3 session.
Moments after Tuch briefly skated onto the ice and a too-many-men penalty was not called, Tuch found Thompson through the neutral zone. Thompson got a step on Kucherov going to the net, and Kucherov was called for a hooking penalty on the backcheck as Vasilevskiy stopped his shot on goal.
From there it seemed like only a matter of time before Buffalo would capitalize on the 4-on-3, as Casey Mittelstadt methodically skated in from the right dot, drawing two Lightning players toward him and leaving Dahlin wide open for a setup along the back post for the game winner,
“There are plays that go for you and against you,” Cooper said. “I thought there was a lot that went against us tonight. I think everyone in the building saw (the too many men) and they don’t call it. We can’t sit here and say that call was the difference. But they ended up calling the penalty against us and we couldn’t kill it off. That’s the main thing. You’ve got to kind of play the hand you’re dealt.”
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