The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Western Conference leading Anaheim Ducks 5-3 at Amalie Arena tonight and regained sole possession of first place in Eastern Conference.
It was a much different first period for the Lightning than it was 24 hours earlier against the Kings. The Lightning trailed the Kings 3-0 after one last night and led 3-0 tonight.
Brian Boyle scored his 11th goal at 2:55 from Brett Connolly and Victor Hedman. Hedman made a tremendous play skating the puck from the point all the way around the net and made a great backhand pass to Boyle who beat Anaheim goaltender Frederik Andersen.
Rookie defenseman Luke Witkowski dropped the gloves for the first time in the NHL. He went with Patrick Maroon who landed a few shots, but Witkowski held his own. Maroon gave him a helmet tap after the bout, welcoming the rookie to the NHL.
Valtteri Filppula scored his 11th of the season at 13:42 from Ryan Callahan and Steven Stamkos. Callahan backhanded a pass into the slot, where Stamkos deflected it right to Filppula who made no mistake with it.
Nikita Kucherov scored his 20th of the year and his third in three games from Tyler Johnson and Filppula at 18:52 to give the Bolts a 3-0 lead.
Shots in the first period were 10-4 in favor of Tampa Bay.
The Ducks Ryan Getzlaf scored his 200th NHL goal at 4:49 of the second period from Corey Perry and Matt Beleskey. Getzlaf’s 17th of the season was reviewed and first disallowed in the referee’s announcement and then allowed seconds later in a second announcement. At any rate, Getzlaf’s goal was good after it went of his and Brian Boyle‘s skate to cut the Bolts’ lead to two.
Brian Boyle scored his second of the game and 12th of the year as he came off the bench on a line change, found a rebound in a scrum in front of the net and deposited it up and over Andersen at 14:27. Assists went to Ondrej Palat and Brett Connolly.
Shots in the period were 10-8 in favor of Anaheim.
The Lightning continued their dominance of the Ducks in the third period as Ryan Callahan finished off a 3 on 1 from Filppula and Steven Stamkos to make it 5-1. It was Callahan’s 16th at 6:14.
Midway through the third, Anaheim goalie Frederik Andersen was replaced by Ilya Bryzgalov after the net toppled over on him and he was injured.
Sami Vatanen and ex Bolt Eric Brewer scored within three minutes of each other to cut the Lightning’s lead to 5-3 with 3:14 to go in the third, but that would be it for the Ducks.
Shots in the game were 28-23 in favor of Anaheim.
The Bolts went 0-5 on the power play and were 4-5 on the penalty kill.
Jason Garrison (lower body), Brenden Morrow (healthy), Radko Gudas (knee surgery) and Matt Carle (abdominal surgery) were the scratches.
The Lightning will visit the Nashville Predators Tuesday night.
(Feature Photograph/Getty Images)
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