Lightning offense fizzles out again in loss to New Jersey

by Erik Erlendsson | @Erik_Erlendsson | Like us on Facebook
October 29, 2016

The opening two weeks of the season saw the Lightning power their way to victory.

Goals were aplenty and victories followed.

But for the second consecutive game the offense went cold and Tampa Bay lost 3-1 to New Jersey at Prudential Center. It was the second straight loss for the Lightning after opening the season with five victories in six games.

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Andrei Vasilevskiy finished with 20 saves in his third start of the season while Tyler Johnson scored the only goal for the Lightning, his first goal since opening night. Adam Henrique and Damon Severson scored first period goals for the Devils while Corey Schneider stopped 32 shots for the victory.

In the opening six games of the season Tampa Bay scored at least three goals in five of those games, all victories. But since putting up seven goals against Toronto on Oct. 25, the Lighting have now scored two goals in the past two games.

And for the seventh time this season the Lightning failed to score a goal in the opening period and found themselves down two goals after 20 minutes of play.

“If we want to have long-term success in this league, you can’t fall behind,’’ Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. “On our home stand, we found ways to come back, but it’s just a recipe for disaster. I look back, I think we’ve only scored once in the first period all year. You’re not going to win too many hockey games if you’re always chasing the game.’’

Tampa Bay was chasing the game early after Henrique scored just 3:57 in to the game. Playing without Nikita Kucherov, who was injured sliding in to the boards against Montreal two nights earlier, the Lightning shuffled the line combinations around but were unable to find any sort of sustained attack. The only goal came from Johnson, whose scored 1:59 in to the third period to cut Tampa Bay’s deficit to 3-1.

For the second consecutive game the Lightning found space hard to come by on the ice. Tampa Bay did not show much of a push to create any space and too often they were not getting to the front of the net to set screens or find some of the few rebounds Schneider allowed around the crease, making it a relatively easy night for a team that played the previous night.

“Our urgency has not been there for whatever reason since the third period against Montreal and it just carried into tonight,’’ Cooper said. “That’s too bad because that’s a team you catch on a back-to- back.

It’s a little tough for us too because we’ve been on the road for a week and more than that so both teams have wear and tear on them a little bit but we’ve got to be better for us to win tonight.’’

Postgame notes: With Kucherov out of the lineup, winger Cory Conacher was recalled from the Syracuse Crunch of the American Hockey League and made his season debut with Tampa Bay. Conacher finished with one shot on goal and was a minus-1 in 13 minutes, 26 seconds of ice time. … The loss snapped Tampa Bay’s five-game winning streak against New Jersey, which included a meeting in Tampa on Oct. 15. … The Lightning finished 0-for- 4 on the power play.

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