Coach Jon Cooper wanted the Tampa Bay Lightning to return from their five-game road trip with more points than games played. Thanks to wins in the first three games that will happen. However, the execution of their game plan over the last two left him a little “frustrated”. The Bolts ended their road trip with a dispiriting 6-3 loss to the Calgary Flames on Saturday afternoon. They had closed the gap to 4-3 on a late third period goal by Anthony Cirelli before two empty-net goals sealed the win for the Flames.
For much of the game the Lightning struggled to put forth quality zone time offensively and spent much of the day on their heels as Calgary controlled the neutral zone and launched shot after shot at Andrei Vasilevskiy, who was denied his 250th career win for the second night.