Signs of life in St. Louis still not enough to snap losing streak

by Erik Erlendsson | @Erik_Erlendsson | Like us on Facebook
December 1, 2016

The Lightning have given off the appearance of a team showing cracks while trying to hold back any leaks in the dam in recent games.

On the surface, it’s easy to see that. Tampa Bay has lost four consecutive games in regulation for the first time in more than three years after falling 5-4 to St. Louis at Scottrade Center.

They have allowed four or more goals in all four games and the penalty kill, which has been consistent through most of the season, was torched for three goals by the Blues and has allowed five power play goals in the past four games.

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Vladimir Tarasenko recorded his third career hat trick and finished with four points while Kevin Shattenkirk had two goals and four points.

Cedric Paquette scored two goals for the Lightning, which rallied from down 2-0 and 4-1 to twice cut the deficit to a goal before the final buzzer blared.

Andrei Vasilevskiy, starting in consecutive games for the first time this season, allowed four goals on 16 shots before being pulled 1:44 in to the second period.

Ben Bishop faced just 10 shots but was saddled with the backdoor loss, allowing the fifth goal of the game, to see his record drop to 7-9 on the season.

No doubt the pitchforks and flaming torches are ready to greet the team upon arriving back in town after dropping all three games on the road trip.

But the walls are not about to crumble around this team. Don’t misread that, a four-game losing streak for the first time since April 11-21, 2013, is hardly time to celebrate misgivings.

What was on display, however, during Thursday’s game at St. Louis was something which had been missing during the previous three games – a will to win.

After falling behind 2-0 for the fourth consecutive game, the Lightning could have folded up and played out the remainder of the game. But Paquette cut it to 2-1 at 10:39 of the first period for his first goal since opening night.

The Blues added two more goals, both on the power play, and built a 4-1 lead early in the second to chase Vasilevskiy from the game.

That could have been even more reason for the Lightning to call it a night and play out the string for the final 38 minutes of the game.

Instead, Tampa Bay refused to wilt and pushed back.

“We just kept going,’’ Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. “The guys felt this was a winnable hockey game for us. You can’t sit there and play the game not trying to make a mistake. You’ve got to play the game with passion and be aggressive and throw the chips out there and see where they land. We did that.’’

Tyler Johnson cut the lead to 4-2 at 14:25 of the second period while Nikita Kucherov scored his 12th of the season seven seconds in to Tampa Bay’s first power play chance of the night at 1:41 of the third period to make it a one-goal game.

Even after Tarasenko completed his hat trick – coming off an offensive zone turnover from Nikita Nesterov, who tried to pinch in to cover his mistake and got caught for a 2-on-1 against – Tampa Bay kept trying to battle back and again cut it to a one-goal game with 8:04 left in the third period on Paquette’s second of the game.

Though the comeback could not be completed, the Lightning outshot the Blues 12-6 in the final period to put themselves in position to complete the comeback. That character trait was missing in recent games and perhaps could be a sign of things to come.

“I thought we played well enough to get points, and that’s kind of how you come out of these things,’’ Cooper said. “Sometimes you don’t get the points, and maybe next game we will.’’

Postgame notes: D Anton Stralman returned to the lineup after missing nine games with an upper-body injury. … D Jason Garrison took a shot off the inside of his right knee as time expired in the second period. He took one shift in the third and did not return. … Fwds Joel Vermin and Michael Bournival, both called up from Syracuse the day before, made their season debut for Tampa Bay. … Vermin picked up a pair of assists for his first career multi-point game in 16:13 of ice time, finished a plus-2 with two shots, six shot attempts and three hits. … Bournival played just 6:37. … C Cedric Paquette recorded his third career multi-goal game. … LW Jonathan Drouin recorded two assists, pushing him past the 50-point mark for his career. … C Brian Boyle recorded his 150th career point and 50th with the Lightning. … C Vladislav Namestnikov was a healthy scratch. … RW Ryan Callahan was placed on injured reserve with a lower body injury, retroactive to Nov. 27. … D Slater Koekkoek and Luke Witkowski were scratched.

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