TAMPA, Fla. _ Sleeping in your own bed is one thing, but waking up is another. And from the looks of it, the Lightning forgot to set their alarms Saturday night. Colorado dominated the Lightning in their second "home opener," 6-2, with Tampa Bay coming off a six-game road trip and Colorado in the midst of one of their own.
A competitive first period turned into a messy second for the Lightning _ with the period featuring Colorado's three-goal scoring spree in a 2:49 span.
Shots showed no life. Passes were intercepted. And the only action on ice was a pair of scrums that cost both teams seven minutes of ice time.
Simply put, the Lightning (4-3-1) were outplayed, outlasted and outscored.
The Avs were quick to strike, scoring the opening goal in the first 3:30 of the game. Tyson Jost grabbed the puck off a defensive turnover and outnumbered the Lightning on the sprint to the net, marking his second goal of the season.
Tampa Bay saw some life when Yanni Gourde tapped in the puck off a shot from Kevin Shattenkirk and another touch from Ryan McDonagh, tying the score 1-all.
That didn't settle easily with Colorado as the team jumped ahead in the second period, notching three goals in less than three minutes. Jost tallied the second and fourth goals of the night for the Avs, sealing his first career hat trick. And Gabriel Landeskog also got on the board with Colorado's third goal on the night.
Nikita Kucherov was quiet, not recording a point. When he was awarded a third-period penalty shot, he harmlessly backhanded the shot over the net.
Fans started to vacate the arena when Colorado's Nazem Kadri took a shot down the slot, past Andrei Vasilevskiy, giving the Avs a 5-1 lead over the home team.
The 42 shots on goal seemed like they were there to show some participation. Each one made the one before seem even worse.
The Lightning got their second goal 11:48 into the third when they capitalized on a shot from Kevin Shattenkirk. He shot from the point, and Victor Hedman deflected the puck in from the crease to make it 5-2.
Colorado put an exclamation point on the evening with its sixth goal when Mikko Rantanen found an open shot against Vasilevskiy and Hedman.
