Photo by Kendall Bulkiewicz | The Crow’s Nest
By Kendall Bulkiewicz
The Tampa Bay Lightning’s tilt against the Minnesota Wild resulted in a 4-2 loss. The strong start for the Lightning, slowly unraveled as penalties piled up and a pair of costly power-play goals were scored by the visitors.
Lightning head coach Jon Cooper acknowledged his team’s penalty ills stating it puts a lot of stress on kill.
Wild’s left-wing Kirill Kaprizov had a goal and an assist, upping his season total to four goals and nine assists. Other left-wing Matt Boldy, with assists from right-wing Mats Zuccarello and Kaprizov, added an important power-play goal early in the third period. Zuccarello finished with an assist on Boldy’s goal and played a big part in the Wild’s offensive onslaught, showcasing the strengths of Minnesota’s top line.
On Tampa Bay’s side, left-wing Nick Paul had a busy game with a few penalties taken, but was quite active with three shots in the game and several faceoffs won. While being that active, Paul took a couple key penalties that really hurt his team’s discipline – putting stress on the penalty-kill unit. Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, who made a number of huge saves throughout on center Joel Eriksson Ek and Boldy among others, ended the night with 28 saves, but couldn’t stem the tide against the relentless pressure of the Wild power play late in the game.
In the third, the offense of Tampa Bay stagnated. Coach Cooper was frustrated that his team would not shoot the puck when they had the advantage, especially in the latter period.
“We played a little frustrated in the third…we refused to shoot. We just sat there and played perimeter hockey,” Cooper said, noting the Lightning could neither find the scoring lanes nor shoot decisively.
Defenseman Victor Hedman tried to create some offense with three shots, including two shots that goal-tender Marc-Andre Fleury was able to save. Fleury saved 31 of the 33 shots he faced in the game as the Lightning poured it on in shots.
The game finally broke out of the Lightning’s grasp with under two minutes left in regulation as the Kaprizov goal gave the Wild a 4-2 advantage and sealed it. The team seemed frustrated because, although Tampa Bay dominated possession most of the period, it could not bury those chances.
The Tampa Bay Lightning will return to Amalie Arena in their next home game against the Washington Capitals today at 7 p.m.
