Lightning Collapse Against The Coyotes

The Lightning were without two of their top stars on Monday as they faced the Coyotes at Amalie Arena. Steven Stamkos sat out the game which was described as a lower body injury but more specifically for body maintenance. Andrei Vasilevskiy was also out for the Lightning as Louie Domingue got the start against his former team.  Domingue was released by the Coyotes in late October and was acquired by the Lightning in mid-November and has been 6-2 with the Lightning and has won his last four starts.

The Coyotes came in losers of 2 straight and were on their 4^th game of a 6 game roadie while the Bolts dropped their own game Saturday night against the Devils and led Boston in the Atlantic by 2 points prior to the opening puck drop. The Lightning also donned special warm up Jerseys in conjunction with the Tampa Bay Rays who are opening up their season at home on Thursday against the Red Sox.

It was another slow start again but not only from the Lightning but also from the Coyotes. There were lots of whistles and faceoffs with neither team lighting the lamp. The lack of flow played into the hands or should I say, skates of the Coyotes as they held the Lightning to just 7 shots on goal in the period which was the theme on the night.

There were also only two 2 penalties called in the period and both were on the Lightning. One of the penalties carryied over into the 2nd as Cedric Pacquette took an interference call at the 19:45 mark.

The score remained a tie until Trevor Murphy crushed a blast from the right faceoff circle passed Domingue who didn’t even see it. It was Murphy’s 1^st goal of the season and put the Coyotes up 1-0 at the 10:45 mark of the second.

The score remained the same until Jakob Chychrun made it 2-0 at 17:22 with a one-timer on the power play from the hash marks off a pass from Richard Panik. This came off a goalie interference call that was drawn by Antii Raanta. Raanta was solid all night in net but was only tested a few times in the first two periods as the Coyotes had a 2-0 lead after 2.

The home crowd was antsy going into the third but they had confidence in the Lightning’s ability to comeback especially after the performance against the Leafs last week. Unfortunately for the fans and the team, there would not be a comeback on Monday night as the two teams exchanged 3^rd period goals. Nikita Kucherov scored his 38^th goal of the season on the power play with 5:23 remaining but that was the closest they would get as the Coyotes outhustled the Lightning by a final of 4-1.

Notes:

The Lightning had a total of 20 shots in the game while allowing 34 and are back on the road in a huge matchup against Atlantic division rival Boston on Thurday at 7pm

Adam Erne went off with an apparent knee or groin injury and looked to be ok after the game.

Lightning Scratches:

Callahan, Stamkos, Dotchin, Sustr, Budaj and Conacher.