TAMPA, Fla. — The Lightning outplayed the Philadelphia Flyers for most of Tuesday’s home opener. But they let their opponent hang around, and a resilient team burned them late.
Despite leading by two goals in the second period and owning zone time for most of the first two frames, Tampa Bay lost its first game on home ice, 3-2.
The Lightning have dropped three of their first four games to open the season. Their first two losses came against top competition in the Rangers and Penguins, but the upstart Flyers snuck up on Tampa Bay from behind with two third-period goals. The Lightning have been outscored 8-2 in the third period this season.
One mistake deep in their own end cost them, as defenseman Erik Cernak turned the puck over in the slot, gift-wrapping a point-blank attempt for Flyers center Noah Cates, who completed Philadelphia’s comeback with a goal with 7:16 left, the last of three straight goals for the Flyers.
Steven Stamkos opened up a scoreless game early in the second period with two goals on the power play in a span of 2 minutes, 47 seconds, continuing his remarkable start to the season. Stamkos leads the league with six goals, scoring in all four games. He has six of the Lightning’s 10 goals this season.
He gave a Lightning power play that entered the day just 3-for-12 in its first three games a boost, scoring both goals on snipes from the left circle.
Lightning forward Vladislav Namestnikov, who was elevated to the top power-play unit, played a key role in both goals.
On the Lightning’s first goal, Namestnikov took a pass from Nikita Kucherov across the middle and backhanded the puck behind him to Stamkos trailing from the left wing.
Minutes later, Stamkos just missed a goal, hitting a one-timer from the left circle off the near post. But the Lightning maintained possession and Kucherov found Stamkos across the slot along the bottom of the left circle. Stamkos’ sharp-angle shot benefitted from a screen from Namestnikov that took away Flyers goalie Carter Hart’s line of sight.
The Lightning dominated 5-on-5 play but got a little loose in the second period. Scott Laughton put in a long rebound from the left circle with 9:17 left in the period to cut Tampa Bay’s lead to one. Moments later, Kevin Hayes had a wide-open look in front that goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy jumped out of the crease to stop.
Philadelphia evened the score early in the third as James van Riemsdyk redirected a puck into the back of the net on the power play.
