Bolts Blow Two-Goal Lead, Lose 4-3 In OT To Sharks

@jayRecher

Last night was bad.

This might have been worse.

Fresh off of a 7-1 loss at the hands of the Florida Panthers last night in Sunrise, tonight the Lightning blew a two-goal lead against one of the worst teams in the NHL.

Timo Meier scored 2:19 into overtime - his second goal of the night - as the visiting San Jose Sharks defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-3 on Tuesday night at Amalie Arena

After Tampa Bay led 3-1 after twenty minutes, Meier scored his first goal of the night on the power play at 16:23 of the 2nd.

Jonah Gadjovich scored 3:08 into the 3rd to tie the score at three apiece, but this game almost didn't make it into overtime as Meier hit the crossbar on a breakaway with 1:03 left.

Overtime was all San Jose as Tampa Bay just could not find any type of sustained success. Before they knew it, the game was over.

No one could have seen the game turning out this way, especially with how the first period went.

Ross Colton scored just 2:10 into the game on a play that was all hustle.

After Zach Bogosian was able to keep the puck in at the blue line, he quickly shoveled a puck toward the San Jose net that was a 50/50 battle between Colton and Sharks goaltender Kaapo Kahkonen. The Tampa Bay winger was able to win the mini-race to the puck and quickly step around Kahkonen and deposit the puck into the empty net to put the Lightning ahead 1-0.

San Jose's Erik Karlsson - who had three points on the night - answered back with a power play goal at 6:28. An absolute hammer off the faceoff that was the Swedish superstar's 17th goal of the season, extending his lead for most by a defenseman in the NHL.

The Sharks lead was short-lived however, as the Bolts answered back with a power play tally of their own.

Following a holding call on Michael Eyssimont, Nikita Kucherov raced into the San Jose zone and fed a speeding Brayden Point who ripped a shot over the blocker of Kahkonen to give Tampa Bay the lead once again at 9:21.

That was Point's 30th goal of the season, the third time he's reached the 30-goal plateau in his career.

Unfortunately for the Bolts, that was the only time they scored on the man-advantage out of six opportunities on the evening.

Point did find the back of the net again, #31 on the year, at 16:44 of the 1st, but that's where the scoring stopped for the Bolts.

Kahkonen, who settled in nicely after the 1st, stopped 34 of the 37 shots he saw.

Brian Elliott made 18 saves in net for Tampa Bay.

*****

SCORING SUMMARY

1st Period

1. Tampa Bay - Colton - (Bogosian) - 2:10
2. San Jose - PPG - Karlsson - (Meier, Hertl) - 6:28
3. Tampa Bay - PPG - Point - (Kucherov, Hedman) - 9:21
4. Tampa Bay - Point - (Sergachev, Kucherov) - 16:44

2nd Period

1. San Jose - PPG - Meier - (Barabanov, Couture) - 16:23

3rd Period

1. San Jose - Gadjovich - (Harrington, Karlsson) - 3:08

Overtime

1. San Jose - Meier - (Karlsson, Hertl) - 2:19

*****

PENALTY SUMMARY

1st Period

1. San Jose - Barabanov - (Holding) - 3:08
2. Tampa Bay - Cole - (Interference) - 6:23
3. San Jose - Eyssimont - (Holding) - 8:46

2nd Period

1. San Jose - Sturm - (Tripping) - 1:44
2. San Jose - Sturm - (Tripping) - 6:40
3. Tampa Bay - Bogosian - (Interference) - 10:18
4. San Jose - Svechnikov - (Slashing) - 13:12
5. Tampa Bay - Cole - (Cross Checking) -
6. San Jose - MAJOR - Eyssimont - (Fighting) - 19:40
7. Tampa Bay - MAJOR - Point - (Fighting) - 19:40

3rd Period

1. San Jose - Svechnikov - (Hooking) - 5:04

Overtime

NONE

*****

What's Next For The Bolts : The Lightning are back in action on Thursday night as they welcome the Colorado Avalanche to Amalie Arena. Puck drop is slated for 7:00pm.

PHOTO : Getty Images