A trio of shorthanded goals doomed the Tampa Bay Lightning as the Bolts gave up an early lead to fall to the defending Stanley Cup Champion St. Louis Blues 3-1 on Tuesday night in St. Louis.What looked like a promising start for the Tampa Bay Lightning on the road where they have struggled this season, ended in another disappointing loss as Tampa Bay is now 5-5-1 on the road and 9-7-2 overall this season.
The Bolts did strike first in an aggressive first ten minutes of the game as Anthony Cirelli was found all alone in front of St. Louis goaltender Jordan Binnington punching the first tally of the game in the back of the net.
That would be the only time that the Lightning would find themselves in front of the defending champs heading into the first intermission as they were outscored and outshot for the remainder of the game. St. Louis turned up the heat in the second period with an 18-4 shots on goal advantage in the period netting their first goal of the game shorthanded by David Perron tying the game at one.
The Blues added to their totals in the third as Oskar Sundqvist gave St. Louis a 2-1 lead shorthanded, and Jaden Schwartz scored an empty net goal just as time expired giving the Blues a 3-1 win over the Lightning.
Andrei Vasilevskiy finished the game with 25 saves as the Lightning were outshot 34-18 in the contest.The Tampa Bay Lightning still have yet to win a game against a team from the Western Conference this season.
Tampa Bay will now head to Chicago to play the Blackhawks on Thursday night.
Photo Courtesy Of Getty Images