The Tampa Bay Lightning put on an absolute clinic Saturday.
Despite defeating the Columbus Blue Jackets by a modest score of 3-2, the Bolts put on a dominating performance in Game 3 to take a 2-1 lead in the series.
The Lightning held the Jackets to a staggering seven shots in the final 45 minutes of the game, according to The Athletic's Aaron Portzline.
Tampa Bay ran into penalty trouble early in the game, as Pat Maroon, Zach Bogosian, and Blake Coleman were each docked two-minute minors in the opening 10 minutes. Columbus generated some chances, but couldn't capitalize on the power plays. Once the game returned to five-on-five, the Lightning took over.
The Bolts finished the game by controlling 74.2% of the shot attempts at five-on-five and had 13 high-danger scoring chances compared to Columbus' two, according to Natural Stat Trick.
Blue Jackets head coach John Tortorella chalked it up to overall fatigue for his group, having played eight games in 14 nights. Three of those contests went to overtime, including the quintuple OT marathon in Game 1 of the Lightning series.
"That’s the kind of thing that determines it for me, is it wasn’t just one person," Tortorella said postgame, according to Brian Hedger of the Columbus Dispatch. "It was a whole group of men that struggled tonight.”
Game 4 is set for Monday at 3 p.m. ET.
