This is hockey. A team isn’t supposed to lose on a field goal.
And yet, the Lightning lost a 2-1 game to the St. Louis Blues on Sunday night when the puck went into the net off the foot of Patrik Berglund with 2:29 to play. The officials immediately disallowed the goal, but after a review, they reversed the call and counted the goal.
โIt was an intentional kick,โ said goaltender Ben Bishop. โHe knows what he’s doing . It’s tough to overturn that. I’d like to have an explanation. It looked like a kick. It’s one thing if he counts the goal, but it’s tough when he calls a no-goal and reverses it.โ
The Blues led 1-0 at the time, so that goal essentially iced the game. Nikita Kucherov would score for the Lightning with 52 seconds to play, but it just made the final score closer.
โI’m at a loss for words, to be honest.โ coach Jon Cooper said. โI thought there was zero chance of that being turned over. I don’t know how you look at that. The refs are trying to interpret the call. My interprepretation is that that was a clear a kick as you can possibly see. You can kick with inside of your foot or the outside. My interpretation is that was what he did. That was a distinct kick. The ref on the ice was 10 feet away and was adamantly calling it a no-goal. I didn’t see any way it would be reversed.โ
It was a tough night for the Lightning, which lost its third in four games and had a nine-game streak snapped at home.
The Lightning fell to a tie for eighth in the wild-card standings.
โWe could wake up Tuesday and be out of it,โ said Cooper. โWe have to win a game.โ
Ben Bishop allowed two goals for the 28th time in 41 attempts this season. Bishop is 22-16-3 this year, even though he is third in the league with a 2.09 goals against average.
Tampa Bay is home against San Jose Tuesday.
