The Tampa Bay Lightning started out strong against Carolina on Tuesday, but pressure from the Canes and costly turnovers eventually sent the game in the wrong direction for the Bolts.
At the start of the first period, the Lightning had an early edge in shots and were starting to dictate play. An early power play looked promising for Tampa Bay, but with a few seconds left, Nikita Kucherov was picked off by Sebastian Aho on a cross ice pass. Carolina opened the scoring on a shorthanded goal by forward Seth Jarvis’ who shot on the rush.
Despite the Cane's shorthanded opportunity, the Lightning continued to push.
Tampa Bay came out to start the second period down by just one goal. The ice began to tilt in Carolina's direction when three consecutive turnovers by the Lightning led to multiple rush chances.
“For the first 30 minutes, I really liked our game,” said Lightning coach Jon Cooper. “You’d probably make a good argument that we should have been ahead and not behind. The problem is, we didn’t stick with it. We had a 2 ½-minute span where we turned the puck over, and they end up getting that second one and it took a little bit of life out of us. After that, we were just chasing it.”
Carolina went on to score twice in the second period.
Lightning rookie Gage Goncalves’ put his team on the board to start the third period. Sean Walker responded for the Canes less than two minutes later, giving them a 4-1 lead.
Tampa Bay was also without top forward, Nikita Kucherov for the entirety of the third period.
Kucherov sat for a portion of the second period on Thursday night as well after Buffalo capitalized off a turnover. As was reported, Kucherov left Monday’s practice in some discomfort, holding his lower left arm. Cooper did not provide an update on his status after the game.
“You know, they're a good team, and when you give them chances to come at you, they're going to take that,” Victor Hedman said of Carolina.
“For us, we just have to regroup and bring the positives, go to Philly and have a more complete game.”
The Lightning will look to rebound against the Flyers in Philadelphia on Thursday night.