After enduring a tough practice Thursday, the Tampa Bay Lightning were hoping for a much better start against the Edmonton Oilers Friday night. They got that, and a much better effort in general but still fell to the Edmonton Oilers in a shootout by a final score of 4-3.
The Lightning got off to the quick start they desperately needed when Randy Jones scored on a wrist shot from the left point for his first goal of the year; the goal at 5:03 of the first gave the Lightning a 1-0 lead. Edmonton was able to tie the game when one of their many talented rookies, Magnus Paajarvi evened the score with his third goal of the year at the 11:37 mark of the first. The Lightning would answer right back, when the suddenly-hot Ryan Malone scored his ninth goal of the year on the power-play at 17:48 to take a 2-1 lead into the break.
This article appears in Dec 9-15, 2010.