Tampa Bay Lightning has three important games left on their schedule, but in their quest for the Atlantic Division’s top position, they must surely have the feeling of giving away too much during the last two matches.
The total amount of that giveaway? Two very crucial points.
Coach Jon Cooper’s Squad, who tracks the Toronto Maple Leafs first place with four points, will end his season series with the visiting Buffalo Sabers on Sunday evening.
After opening the week with a solid 5-1 thump of the New York Rangers at the Metropolitan Division Club’s world famous arena, let Blightning (45-26-8, 98 points) two matches get away from them on overtime results that can greatly affect their mail season.
They lost to Toronto on Matthew Knie’s overtime goals on Wednesday and then blew a third period line and were made by Detroit Red Wing’s beginner Marco Kasper on binding and game-winning overtime goals.
The flash is also tied with Florida Panthers, who has a fewer match to play.
“In the end, you want to get the result, the two points, but what we do now, our process has not been right the last little bit,” Cooper said after the Detroit loss. “It is unfortunate because we would sit down in a pretty good situation.
“Seventy plus games and now it looks like we’re playing pre-season games.”
The lightning will host Panthers on Tuesday and visit Rangers again on Thursday to end the season after Sunday’s match with Sabers, who lost 3-2 Saturday in a shootout to the Stanley Cup champions in Sunrise.
Unless he plans anything else, Cooper will probably have this season’s Art Ross Trophy winner to help his team pass Leafs or at least keep by the Panthers – Nikita Kucherov.
Kucherov will be tied with Colorado Nathan Mackinnon with a Liga-Hög 116 points, Kucherov will win the score title during one of the next three matches with either a goal or an assist because Avalanche announced that MacKinnon (Rest) will not play again in ordinary season.
Kucherov has 34 goals and 82 assists, while Brayden Point leads with 41 goals.
In southern Florida in the front of his back-to-back, Sabers led (35-37-7, 77 points) early but had to collect in the third period against a Florida club that rested most of his top-sex forward, including Captain Aleksander Barkov and Sam Reinhart, plus the star goal sergei bobrovsky.
But Panthers Backup Vitek Vanecek filled Jack Quinn, JJ Petserka and Alex Tuch to win Shootout 1-0.
The defeat left Buffalo and played its best hockey distance, 8-2-1 during the last 11 races.
“Good special team, guys rose when we needed,” says Captain Rasmus Dahlin, who made one of Buffalo’s two power-play goals. “On the road, a point is always important. I’m glad we got it today.”
Peterka had a goal and an assist in the loss and marked his 15th multi -point game. It puts him in second place to just Tage Thompson (16) among forward with several point trips.
Owen Power left the game and did not return after a difficult collision with colleague Mattias Samuelsson and Floridas Carter Verhaeghe.
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