In Las Vegas, Marc-Andre Fleury made 24 saves and helped the Golden Knights defeat the Tampa Bay Lightning, 5-3, on Thursday night.
The loss snapped an 11-game win streak for the Bolts.
Steven Stamkos struck for two goals for the Lightning.
“It felt like we were a little slow tonight,” Stamkos said. “We were just a little loose. We got away from the way you’ve got to play against a team like that.
“We knew we were on a great streak, but you’ve still got to play well to beat really good teams in this league. We didn’t play our best tonight. We’ll refocus and hopefully start a new streak.”
Kevin Shattenkirk added a single marker for the Bolts.
“We’re going to bounce back as a team,” Stamkos said. “We had a great stretch. We played so much great hockey. All anyone is going to talk about is that we lost this game, but we’ve put a great stretch of hockey together. We’ll refocus, work on some things and play better next game.”
Alec Martinez scored in his first game with the Knights.
“Definitely felt a lot more comfortable as the game went on,” Martinez said. “Personally, I wasn’t as sharp as I’d like to be. I think I might have to cut myself some slack.”
Ryan Reaves and Max Pacioretty scored in the opening 47 seconds of the third period.
“The start of the third is not the way we wanted,” Stamkos said. “That was a tough one.”
Mark Stone and Paul Stastny also scored for Vegas.
“I think our group is starting to believe in each other and starting to gain some confidence,” Golden Knights head coach Peter DeBoer said.
The Knights now lead the Pacific Division by a point over the Edmonton Oilers.
“It’s pretty incredible to be able to play with a hockey club of this caliber,” Martinez said. “I kept saying on the bench ‘This is a fun group to play with.’ It’s a little different when you’re on the same side, you kind of take notice at certain things that maybe you wouldn’t when you’re, obviously, on the other end of things.”
[WATCH:Â All Lightning vs. Golden Knights highlights]
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 28 saves in the loss that ended his 21-game points streak.
“We didn’t manage the puck, and to give them a breakaway to a pretty darned good player, that’s the stuff we hadn’t been doing in the run we’re on,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. “And obviously the first minute of the third was the backbreaker for us.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.