2
0
Lightning fall into the trap.
TB-4
UTA-6
Brandon Halverson allowed five goals on 24 shots in his first NHL start for the loss. If that was an audition for taking Jonas Johansson’s backup job next year, he failed it miserably. Halverson is not a goaltender who can play deep in his net relying on athleticism and quickness because those aren’t his gifts. He needs to be on his positioning and his angles and sharp tracking the puck and he was none of that in this game.
First Period
6:42 UTA Doan (5), (McBain, Crouse)
17:42 UTA Cooley (20), (Kesselring, Schmaltz)
18:49 TB Point (33), (Guentzel, Bjorkstrand)(PP)
Second Period
5:22 TB Cirelli (24), (Hagel, Kucherov)
5:58 UTA Kerfoot (9), (Stenlund, Marino)
17:23 TB Guentzel (34), (Perbix, Gourde)
17:53 UTA Cooley (21), (Marino, Schmaltz)
Third Period
1:10 UTA Schmaltz (17), (Cooley, Keller)
2:54 TB Point (34), (McDonagh, Guentzel)
19:03 UTA Kerfoot (10), (unassisted)(SH)(EN)
I don’t want to lay this all at Halverson’s feet, to be clear, because they team in front of him absolutely fell in the trap of looking ahead to the game in Las Vegas. That showed up in a lack of focus and crispness and it really showed up in the Lightning being second to loose puck the entire game. It simply was not the kind of team performance I would have expected from a veteran group that should know it needs to circle the wagons around a career AHL’er making his first NHL start. You can’t be giving up breakways and second and third chances on rebounds around the crease and expect success in that scenario. Frankly, I thought this was the rare occasion where the refs game the Lightning the superstar treatment and gave them a chance in this game they frankly did not deserve with a Third Period goal disallowed on video review. Utah would’ve rightfully felt hard done by if the Lightning had pulled this game out late because they were not the better team at 5’s and they did not deserve any kind of result with the way they played.
Redemption is needed tomorrow.
Box score and extended statistics from NHL.com.
