Palat, Ondrej

Season keeps slipping away.

WPG-2
TB-1

Anders Lindback allowed 2 goals on 28 shots, but the 2 goals were very soft. Hard to blame the goaltender when he only gets 1 goal of support, but he didn't help, that's for sure.

First Period
10:05 WPG Tangradi (1), (unassisted)

Second Period
NO SCORING

Third Period
06:57 TB Stamkos (18), (St. Louis, Malone)
15:52 WPG Little (4), (Ladd)

Steven Stamkos was the game's third star.

Frustrating game. The Lightning had well over 20 scoring chances against a backup netminder. Lots of power play chances. Against Winnipeg that should equal a pretty lopsided win for the Lightning. Games aren't played on paper, unfortunately.

Alex Killorn had 2 shots, 2 hits, and 1 blocked shot in 21:28. That's not a typo. Clearly the coaching staff believes in the young man.

Ondrej Palat was -1 with 2 hits in 11:31. Had the go-ahead goal off a feed from Conacher and slammed it off the post. Unfortunate.

Pierre-Cedric Labrie had 1 shot and 1 hit in 7:12.

Cory Conacher was -1 in 13:01. He's clearly been passed on the depth chart by Killorn at this point.

Box score and extended statistics from NHL.com.

Hoping for floodgates...

TB-5
NJ-2

Anders Lindback allowed 2 goals on 27 shots for the win. Little talked about fact: for as much negativity there is about the kid, Lindback's 8-5-1 this season.

First Period
17:04 TB Thompson (5), (Conacher, Palat)

Second Period
05:53 TB St. Louis (6), (Killorn, Lecavalier)
13:13 TB Killorn (4), (St. Louis, Lecavalier)

Third Period
08:36 TB Thompson (6), (Conacher, Salo)
13:44 NJ Henrique (6), (Carter)
15:15 NJ Elias (6), (Zajac, Kovalchuk)(PP)
18:40 TB Crombeen (1), (Hall, Thompson)(EN)

Nate Thompson, Lindback, and Martin St. Louis were the game's three stars.

The Lightning have to hope this opens the flood gates. If I view the glass half full, the team started to turn the corner against Pittsburgh. On paper I expected them to be blown out of that game so they exceeded expectations to carry a lead into the Third Period. To blow out a pretty good New Jersey team on the road is another hopeful sign. But, 1 win is just 1 win, and the Lightning need to string together several more in the next 2-3 weeks to get back to being viable as a playoff contender.

Oh, and with 1 goal and 4 assists on the night, the kids are still alright. Jon Cooper develops one heck of a good brand of young hockey player.

Alex Killorn had 1 goal and 1 assist and was +1 with 1 shot in 15:37. He's going to be a fixture in Tampa Bay for a long time, from the looks of it.

Ondrej Palat had an assist and was +2 with 3 shots in 12:33.

Pierre-Cedric Labrie had 7 penalty minutes, 1 shot, 1 hit, and 1 blocked shot in 8:26.

Cory Conacher rebounded from -3 ugliness against the Pens with 2 assists, a +2 rating, 1 shot, and 1 blocked shot in 11:49.

Box score and extended statistics from NHL.com.

We continue our Prospect of the Week award, an honor (virtually) given to one Tampa Bay Lightning prospect for their recent contributions on and off the ice.

The Prospect of the Week for March 4 is … Ondrej Palat, W, Syracuse (AHL – USA).

Ondrej Palat liked being Prospect of the Week so much he did it again.

The Syracuse Crunch winger had his first career hat trick this past week, scoring three goals on Tuesday against Rochester. He was named first star for the Crunch in their 4-1 win. After a scoreless game against Albany on Friday, Palat had a power play goal in Syracuse’s overtime loss on Saturday.

Late game meltdown.

SYR-3
HER-5

Cedrick Desjardins allowed 5 goals on just 19 shots. Ouch.

First Period
HER DiSalvatore, (15) (Taffe, Almeida), 6:53
SYR Wilson, (5) (Jacques, Namestnikov), 8:47
SYR Johnson, (29) (Panik, Barberio), 19:25

Second Period
SYR Oberg, (1) (Panik, Taormina), 1:43
HER Taffe, (14) (Oleksy, Carman), 10:42
HER Taffe, (15) (Carman, Schilling), 16:33

Third Period
HER Schilling, (6) (Taffe, DiSalvatore), 11:16
HER Wellman, (11) (Oleksy, McNeill), 14:47

Ondrej Palat did not dress for the Crunch, fueling speculation he may be on his way up to the show.

Syracuse outshot Hershey 33-19, but still got belted on the scoreboard. Rotton bad weekend for Syracuse. They face Toronto on Wednesday.

Box score from TheAHL.com.

All of a sudden, Syracuse is struggling to win close games too.

ROC-2
SYR-1 (OT)

Riku Helenius allowed 2 goals on 26 shots for the overtime loss.

First Period
RCH Mancari, (17) (McCormick, Rissmiller), 10:25 (PP)

Second Period
NO SCORING

Third Period
SYR Palat, (11) (Barberio, Gudas), 1:28 (PP)

Overtime
RCH McNabb, (5) (Mancari, Adam), 4:50 (PP)

Ondrej Palat was the game's second star. Palat has 5 goals and 13 points in his last 8 games. I believe that technically qualifies as "on fire". With Benoit Pouliot possibly hurt in today's game against Boston, I wonder if Palat might be worthy of some consideration for a cup of coffee.

Syracuse finishes their weekend tomorrow against Hershey.

Box score from TheAHL.com.