Avalanche of 1st Period Goals Bury Lightning

By JC De La Torre

Another game, another bad 1st period for the Bolts. Tampa Bay continued their tendancy for slow starts and this time it cost them, as they were outshot 10-5 and they allowed 3 goals putting them behind the 8-ball for the rest of the game. To their credit, the Lightning continued fighting and made the Colorado Avalanche sweat a little before finally succumbing 4-3.

Jordan Leopold scored on the power play at the 15:20 mark of the first period to give Colorado an early 1-0 lead. Then, Wojtek Wolski scored twice in 1:36 to give the Avalanche a commanding 3-0 lead going into intermission. Olaf Kolzig was lifted for Mike Smith and Vincent Lecavalier scored the only goal in the second period to cut the lead to a two goal deficit. At the beginning of the third, David Jones scored his second goal of the season for Colorado to make it 4-1. Midway through the final stanza, Tyler Arnason got called for hooking Steven Stamkos and the Lightning cashed in with Ryan Malone's 4th goal in as many games (7th overall) to cut it back to two with 10:21 left in the game. Cody McCormick would get a double minor for high sticking Vincent Lecavalier at the 12:35 mark of the third and Lecavalier would make the Avalanche pay on the second half of the double minor, feeding Steven Stamkos for a power play goal, cutting the lead to 1 at 4-3. Unfortunately the Lightning could not find the final equalizer and ended up with another frustrating loss.

Tampa Bay eagerly ends November with a 6-10-7 record and they have fallen into the cellar of the Southeast division, stuck on 19 points.