TAMPA, Fla. — The Lightning allowed a pair of goals to the league’s second-best power-play unit and yielded another unsightly short-handed goal, falling 3-2 to the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday night at Amalie Arena.
Tampa Bay was frustrated by their special teams — their inability to stop the Oilers’ power play and their own ineptitude with the man advantage — in a loss that snapped their five-game point streak.
The Lightning (7-5-1) nearly orchestrated another third-period rally from two goals down, but had a tying goal negated with eight minutes left.
How frustrated were the Lightning? After Nikita Kucherov’s shot from the slot was swallowed by Oilers goaltender Jack Campbell, Kucherov broke his stick into two pieces after slamming it off the back of the net.
The Lightning power play not only allowed a short-handed goal for the third time in the past four games, but it was 0-for-5 on the night.
Despite all their talent, the Oilers hadn’t won a game at Amalie Arena in nearly 13 years, with the Lightning winning their past eight meetings in Tampa. And the Lightning dominated early on, tallying the game’s first eight shots.
But the Lightning allowed a short-handed goal on the Oilers’ first shot following a turnover in their own zone 7:45 into the game.
Kucherov made a soft pass in the defensive zone to Victor Hedman, who whiffed trying to pass up ice. The puck landed on Ryan McLeod’s stick and he found Warren Foegele coming across the blue line. Foegele’s wrister from the high slot beat Andrei Vasilevskiy.
Brandon Hagel evened the score, rocketing a shot from the right circle past Campbell 9:53 into the first. Kucherov fed Hagel, giving the Lightning’s top scoring line its 17th goal in the past nine games and extending Kucherov’s personal point streak to 11 games.
Connor McDavid then put the Oilers up on the power play when Erik Cernak’s blocked shot bounced around in front and landed on McDavid’s stick along the back post.
Leon Draisaitl had the Oilers leading 3-1 one minute, 58 seconds later, again on the power play, when McDavid’s touch pass off a puck battle in the corner found Draisaitl for an open back-handed look in the slot.
The Oilers nearly had a third power-play goal late in the second period, but Zach Hyman’s goal was taken off the scoreboard when a lengthy review in Toronto ruled that Hyman made a distinct illegal kicking motion.
The Lightning rallied in the third, as Alex Killorn tipped Nick Perbix’s shot on net 49 seconds into the period. And it appeared that Pat Maroon tied it with 8 minutes left, but a coach’s review found that the puck never crossed the goal line.
The Amalie Arena crowd fell silent in the first period when Oilers forward Evander Kane frantically sped off the ice and down the tunnel holding his left arm, leaving a pool of blood on the ice.
After Kane fell to the ground battling Philippe Myers, Maroon’s skate blade sliced Kane’s wrist. He received treatment at the arena and was stabilized, but was sent to a local hospital for surgery on his wrist.
