Turnovers prove costly as Sharks’ road trip ends with loss to Lightning

The San Jose Sharks made a push in the third period but could not overcome a pair of puck-handling miscues in a 4-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday to finish off a four-game road trip.

Sharks winger Tyler Toffoli scored the opening goal at the 14:37 mark of the first period off assists from William Eklund and Alexander Wennberg. But the Lightning responded with four straight goals, including one just 33 seconds after Toffoli’s goal, as winger Nikita Kucherov pounced on a turnover by defenseman Sam Dickinson and fed Anthony Cirelli, who found Brandon Hagel with a diagonal seam pass for a tap-in goal.

With the Lightning leading 2-1 on a goal by Cirelli at the 1:49 mark of the second period, Sharks goalie Yaroslav Askarov couldn’t connect on a short pass to defenseman Vincent Desharnais from behind the net. Gage Goncalves got the loose puck to Dominic James, who found an open Jake Guentzel in front of the net. He beat Askarov for his 22nd goal of the season at the 3:17 mark.

Askarov finished with 16 saves and now has just one win in his last five starts. His counterpart, Andrei Vasilevskiy, had 22 saves for the Lightning, including nine in the third period.

Overall, the Sharks’ road trip went about as expected. They beat the teams (Washington, Florida) that are around or below them in the NHL’s overall standings and lost to two of the best teams (Detroit, Tampa Bay) in the Eastern Conference.

The 4-2 loss to the Red Wings and Tuesday’s result came in the second half of a back-to-back. The Sharks have now lost three straight games in the second half of back-to-backs and are 3-6-1 in such situations on the year.

Still, holding serve with a 2-2-0 record on a challenging four-game trip isn’t the end of the world for the Sharks, who entered Tuesday in third place in the Pacific Division.

The Sharks returned to San Jose right after the game and will host the New York Rangers on Friday.

The Sharks were looking for a better result against Tampa Bay after they were hammered 7-3 by the Lightning in a testy affair on Jan. 3 at SAP Center.

In that game, Tampa Bay took a 3-0 lead just 6:46 into the first period as they chased Askarov from the net. Alex Nedeljkovic replaced Askarov but allowed four goals in the second period, with the Lightning scoring its seven goals on just 26 shots.

The win by Tampa Bay in San Jose was its seventh in what would become an 11-game winning streak. After a 3-2 overtime loss to the St. Louis Blues on Friday and a 4-1 win over the Dallas Stars on Sunday to finish a five-game road trip, the Lightning carried a 13-game point streak into Tuesday, good enough for a tie atop the Atlantic Division.

“This is probably the best team in the league right now, the hottest team in the league,” coach Ryan Warsofsky said to the Sharks Audio Network of the Lightning. “They’re dangerous in a lot of different ways. We’ve got to take the game in five-minute segments, and we can’t get too high or too low.

“Just stay within ourselves and play for each other like we’ve been doing.”

The Sharks were coming off one of their most memorable wins of the season on Monday when they beat the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers 4-1.

Although Vincent Desharnais and Mario Ferraro were among the goal scorers, the game will be remembered for the fight between goalies Nedeljkovic and Sergei Bobrovsky, who went toe-to-toe at the 6:00 mark of the third period.

NOTES: Although rookie winger Igor Chernyshov had two assists in Monday’s win and now has 11 points in 15 games this season, he was a healthy scratch against the Lightning. Forward Adam Gaudette, who was a healthy scratch against the Panthers, was reinserted into the lineup and began the game as the right winger on a line with center Michael Misa and left wing Pavol Regenda. Gaudette, who didn’t have a point Tuesday, now has 10 goals and seven assists in 39 games this season. … Forward Jeff Skinner and defenseman Vincent Iorio were the other healthy scratches. Skinner didn’t play on the road trip, and Iorio has been scratched for three straight games.