NHL Game Night: 2-7-13 Lightning at Devils

It was a bad call.


Anders Lindback allowed 4 goals on 27 shots for the loss. He was victimized statistically by the two 5-on-3's at the end of the game. Lindback is now two decisions away from graduating from prospect status on the site.

First Period

Second Period
03:28 NJD Henrique (3), (Volchenkov, Elias)
13:19 TB Thompson (2), (St. Louis)

Third Period
15:02 NJD Greene (2), (Clarkson, Elias)(PP)
15:16 NJD Elias (3), (Kovalchuk, Greene)(PP)
17:45 TB Carle (2), (St. Louis, Stamkos)

It's very frustrating to have a very tight game essentially yanked out from under you the way the game tonight was by the referees. The high sticking call late in the game on Adam Hall was flat out wrong on two levels. First, Hall was in the process of trying to shoot the puck away on the PK, and last I checked the follow through when shooting a puck is specifically legislated not to be a high-sticking infraction. Second, and just as importantly, Zajac tripped Hall on the play, causing Hall to spin and fall to the ice as he was making the clearing attempt, with the stick primarily hitting Zajac's visor. Guy Boucher was absolutely right. It was a bad call. Unfortunately expressing that nugget of truth to the refs came with the price tag of the unsportsmanlike minor that made things go from bad to worse.

So the Lightning now meet adversity in the form of a 3-game losing streak smack in the middle of a tough road trip. This is where you'd hope Lindback or Garon could step up and be a streak stopper.

Cory Conacher was -1 with 1 shot in 15:10.

Box score and extended statistics from NHL.com.