In Los Angeles, the Kings were outmatched by the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday night, and fell, 6-4.
The Lightning scored three times in the third period wiping out a 3-3 tie after 40 minutes of play.
Victor Hedman hit for a double and had three points on the night in the Bolts win.
“He was a force out there like he usually is,” the Lightning’s Ryan McDonagh said. “He just thrives when he has to do more.”
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 32 saves in the Lightning win.
Hedman iced for 32 minutes in the game because of a short bench.
“I’m not going to lie, I had trouble napping because I was excited,” Hedman said. “It was something new. You knew you were going to be out there every other shift. In an 82-game season you need those challenges. It was fun to see what you could do with only four guys.”
Nikita Kucherov (power play), Steven Stamkos, and Mathieu Joseph kicked in a goal and two points apiece in the Tampa win.
“I think he’s (Hedman) one of the top five players in the National Hockey League, not just tonight but every night I turn on the TV,” Kings head coach Todd McLellan said. “Six-foot-six and play like that, and he had a huge impact on the game. Played the most minutes of anybody and played the best out of everybody, so he was good.”
The Lightning improved to 27-9-5.
Pierre-Edouard Bellemare l also scored for the Lightning.
The Kings fell to 20-15-5.
“That’s kind of what we expected was going to happen, a kind of back-and-forth kind of game,” the Kings’ Alex Iafallo said. “But when that happens, you just got to kind of pack it in and take your chances and get better chances. But we’ll have to regroup, and we’ll be fine.”
Blake Lizotte, Iafallo, and Arthur Kaliyev scored for LA.
“You’re playing the Stanley Cup champs, you give them three goals like that, you’re not winning. It doesn’t matter what happens with goals four, five and six,” McLellan said.
LA’s Phillip Danault closed out the scoring for the 6-4 final.
Cal Petersen made 19 saves in the LA loss.
You must be logged in to post a comment.