The Tampa Bay Lightning held a 1-0 lead through 40 minutes of play Thursday on home ice and seemed in control of their game with the Vancouver Canucks.
But a four-goal outburst in the third quieted the crowd and the Bolts as the Canucks roared back for a 4-1 win.
Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser, Jake Virtanen and Markus Granlund all scored in the final period.
“We talked about this team coming hard just because of the first period they had against Florida, and they did,” Canucks head coach Travis Green said. “We kind of weathered the storm and we battled back.”
After falling behind, 2-1, the Bolts pulled their goalie for the extra attacker and the Canucks tacked on two empty net goals.
“We’re not finishing,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “Some pucks hit the net, but we’re not going in there with a desire to score, and that’s what you’ve got to do in this league, especially with the goaltending and the way it is.”
Anders Nilsson made 33 saves to pick up the win.
“I felt confident going in the game,” Nilsson said. “I’ve been feeling good the last couple weeks, so I’ve been eager to get into a game eventually. I was excited to get the start and get to play.”
Brayden Point staked the Lightning to a 1-0 lead in the first period.
“Great start, we had a lot of energy and we came out skating,” Lightning captain Steven Stamkos said. “But it’s not how your start, it’s how you finish. The power play was probably the worst I’ve seen in a long time. It cost us the game. We got a lot of chances tonight and it’s just not good enough in this league to not score.”
[WATCH: All Canucks vs. Lightning highlights]
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 24 saves in the loss.
“It’s hockey, you look at the last game we played and we weren’t really happy with that one but we came away with two points somehow. Tonight we played a pretty decent game and you have a lead then in two minutes you end up on the losing side,” Anton Stralmansaid after the loss.
You must be logged in to post a comment.