Lightning visit Stars with points streak still intact
While the Tampa Bay Lightning's 11-game winning streak finally came to a halt, their points streak lives on as they enter a road matchup with the Dallas Stars on Sunday.
The Lightning forced a shootout before falling 3-2 on the road to the Blues to give them 23 of a possible 24 points since Dec. 20. The points streak sits at a dozen games.
Tampa Bay, which leads the Atlantic Division, will finish its five-game road trip (3-0-1) on Sunday afternoon in its only regular-season visit to the Lone Star State this season.
The Lightning rallied from a 2-0 deficit in the first period with goals in the second from Nikita Kucherov and Oliver Bjorkstrand before a scoreless third period forced overtime.
Tampa Bay has not lost in regulation since dropping a 2-1 decision to the Los Angeles Kings at home on Dec. 18.
"We've put ourselves in a pretty darn good spot," head coach Jon Cooper said after the team slipped to 2-2 in shootouts. "This is a full month of road games for us, so the fact that we keep getting points, it'll bode well for us later in the season. If we keep getting points out of every game, we'll be in a good spot."
In the past eight games, defenseman Darren Raddysh has stepped up his offensive game with 14 points (four goals, 10 assists).
"We've been playing good this last month or so, and we had a good effort tonight again," Raddysh said. "Getting points on the road are good, so we'll take that."
The hot Kucherov has posted 27 points (11 goals, 16 assists) in the 12-game point streak, while the Lightning have also built an 11-game road point streak (9-0-2) going back to Dec. 9.
Dallas will open a brief two-game homestand that includes a game Tuesday against the resurgent Boston Bruins. The Stars have struggled since Dec. 23, the final game before the holiday break.
Following their 2-1 road loss to the Utah Mammoth on Thursday, the Stars are 2-5-4 over their past 11 games.
The Stars have scored at least three goals in eight of those 11 games, but poor defensive efforts have left them with 2-2-4 in those games. They remain in second place in the Central Division by a slim margin ahead of the Minnesota Wild.
The Stars' most recent defeat came after the Mammoth's John Marino fired from distance, with the puck deflecting over Dallas goaltender Jake Oettinger and into the net for the go-ahead score.
"That's just the way it goes right now," Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said. "The results aren't there, but the effort's there, so that's the good thing. ... We've just got to keep doing it.
"You look around the league, and it's just so tight right now. Any given night, somebody's going to beat somebody else. We've just got to get a little rhythm going again like we had before Christmas. Still haven't found it yet."
Jason Robertson paces Dallas with 27 goals, two better than Wyatt Johnston. Mikko Rantanen has a club-best 63 points (19 goals, 44 assists).