After beating Vegas 6-2 on Tuesday, the Lightning had a few days off before kicking off a back-to-back Friday night against the Colorado Avalanche and Utah Mammoth.

Tampa Bay entered Friday's matchup riding a three-game win streak, but Colorado set the tone early. The Avalanche scored twice in the first six minutes and added another goal on the opening shift of the second period to take a 3-0 lead. The Lightning tried to battle back, but the early deficit proved difficult to overcome as they fell 6-3.

“We had almost 80 shot attempts and 45 of them were either blocked or we missed the net, and that’s an issue,” said Jon Cooper. “You keep getting those chances and we’re not doing anything with them. In the end we got three, we gave up five and then handed them a gift on the sixth one. If we’re not gonna defend, it’s tough to win a game.”

Nathan MacKinnon led the way for Colorado with a goal and three assists. Jake Guentzel scored twice for Tampa Bay, while Charle-Edouard D’Astous finished with a goal and an assist. Brayden Point added two assists, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 18 saves.

One area that continues to be a work in progress for Tampa Bay is the power play. The Lightning had six opportunities with the man advantage Friday but converted just once, missing chances to get back into the game.

“The entries obviously again, that one we had in the third… spent a minute and 20 seconds just trying to get in and never do,” said Brayden Point. “So that's not good enough. And you know, it's at pivotal points in the game where we could have made it 4-3, and they end up making it 5-2 after the power play. Those are times where you really want to cash in, but I think we’ve got to find a way to get in the zone.”

The Lightning will have a chance to turn the page quickly, heading straight to Utah to face the Mammoth on Saturday.

Utah presents another challenge, particularly on special teams. The Mammoth enter the matchup leading the NHL with a 38.5% success rate on the power play and sit atop the Central Division at 7-4-0.

With another game right around the corner, Tampa Bay will look to get back on track quickly.

Nikita Kucherov entered Friday’s game with 1,137 career points, tied with Steven Stamkos for the most in Lightning franchise history.

He remains one point away from moving into sole possession of the franchise’s all-time scoring record.