The Tampa Bay Lightning started their four-game road trip four points behind the Buffalo Sabres and a two-point lead on the Montreal Canadiens. Despite picking up seven out of eight points they are still four points behind the Sabres, but they did manage to stretch their lead over third-place Montreal to five points. They almost made it a perfect eight points on the road trip, but Ryan Strome’s shot in overtime trickled through Jonas Johansson to give the Calgary Flames a 4-3 win.

Johansson, making his first start in two weeks had his best start in a month as he stopped 25-of-29 shots, including several tough stops from wide open Flames shooters. Some defensive zone coverage breakdowns led to several good looks for Calgary, but for the most part Johansson was able to make the stops. At the other end of the ice Devon Cooley was equally solid, stopping 32-of-33 as the Bolts had a slightly more shot-first mentality on the night.

The Lightning opened the scoring when Ryan McDonagh blasted one home from the top of the circles for his sixth goal of the season. They controlled played for the early part of the game, not showing too much wear and tear from having played the night before. Despite having the only power play of the game, they weren’t able to add to the lead, and the Flames started to equalize puck possession.

Calgary played a pretty heavy game as the period wore on and their forecheck started to cause some issues for the Lightning. Working the puck down low, Yegor Sharongovich shielded the puck with his body and was able to put the puck on the stick of Victor Olofsson, who had found a soft spot in the Lightning defense. Olofsson snapped a quick shot that beat Johansson cleanly.

Twenty-seven seconds later, Morgan Frost found a seam as the Lightning were overloaded on one side of the ice. His shot beat Johansson, and just like that, the Lightning were chasing the game. Calgary played well with the lead as they jammed up the neutral zone and didn’t give the Lightning much room to operate. The Bolts almost stole a goal at the buzzer when Nikita Kucherov forced a turnover that led to a quick shot from Brandon Hagel, but Cooley was there to make the save just as the buzzer sounded.

The pressure continued in the second period as the Lightning continued to struggle a bit with their continuity. They had some solid chances early in the period with Darren Raddysh threading one through traffic and Brayden Point getting stoned from point blank in the slot. The Flames weathered the storm and then doubled the lead on the rush. Once again the Bolts were caught puck-watching and Blake Coleman found a wide open Mikael Backlund who cranked a slapshot past Johansson.

Down by two, the Lightning finally strung some shifts together, and it was Nikita Kucherov setting up Darren Raddysh for a one-timer. They had finally made Colley start moving side to side (J.J. Moser had a nice shot/pass to get the chaos started) and Raddysh was able to beat him for his 19th goal of the season.

The Lightning video crew picked up an assist late in the period as it appeared old friend Blake Coleman had re-established the two-goal lead, but the play was ruled off-side after review. The Lightning started generating more offense in the third period, but it seemed every time Calgary had the puck on their stick in the Lightning zone, they had a clean look at Johansson. He was up to the task as he turned aside the six shots the Flames put on him, including a dangerous chance from Ryan Strome that JoJo had to move across the crease quickly.

With time scuttling away, it was Yanni Gourde and his merry band of linemates that found the equalizer. A nice forechecking shift led to Gourde having the puck behind the net. He centered it to Pontus Holmberg, and while the shot wasn’t the hardest, it ricocheted past Cooley to tie the game.

Both teams seemed content to get the game to overtime. In the bonus session, the Lightning lost the face-off and Matvei Gridin had a nice entry to the zone. He was able to protect the puck from J.J. Moser before feeding the puck to Strome. The veteran’s shot crossed up Johansson, who wasn’t square to the shot and the puck rolled over his glove and into the net.

The Goals

Ryan McDonagh [6] (Gage Goncalves) 1-0 Lightning

Victor Olofsson [13] (Yegor Sharangovich, Zach Whitecloud) 1-1

Morgan Frost [17] (Matt Coronato) 2-1 Flames

Mikael Backlund [16] (Blake Coleman, Hunter Brzustewicz) 3-1 Flames

Darren Raddysh [19] (Nikita Kucherov, J.J. Moser) 3-2 Flames

Pontus Holmberg [10] (Yanni Gourde) 3-3

Ryan Strome [5] (Matvei Gridin, Kevin Bahl) 4-3

Pretty Colors