Nikita Kucherov and Ryan Callahan each scored in the third period to lead the Tampa Bay Lightning’s (46-23-7, 99 points) comeback against the Florida Panthers. The Bolts tied a franchise record with their 30th win of the season at Amalie Arena. Brenden Morrow and Tyler Johnson also scored as Tampa Bay won their fourth game in a row.
Goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy was brilliant when he needed to be, earning his seventh win of the season, stopping 33 of 36 shots.
Jon Cooper said of Vasilevskiy after the game, “We don’t have him tonight, we probably don’t win.”
The Lightning started fast, outshooting Florida 5-0 and outscoring them 2-0 in the first eight minutes of the game.
The Bolts struck first at 5:49 when Brenden Morrow pushed the puck past Panthers goalie Roberto Luongo off a J.T. Brown shot, for his third goal of the season. Brown had the only assist on the play, earning his third point in the past two games.
The Lightning went up 2-0 when Ryan Callahan stole the puck in the offensive zone and found Tyler Johnson with a bullet backhand pass. Johnson one-timed it by Luongo short side for his 26th of the season at 7:47. For Callahan, it was his 29th assist on the season.
Tampa Bay was outshot in the first period 12-10 but controlled play and had the better scoring chances.
Andrei Vasilevskiy wasn’t overly busy, but was good when tested, as the Lightning killed off both Panthers power play chances in the first stanza.
The second period saw the Panthers score three times in under two minutes to take a 3-2 lead.
Florida got on the board at 6:15 of the period as Jussi Jokinen beat Vasilevskiy high on the glove side for his seventh of the year from Brad Boyes and Erik Gudbranson.
Just 18 seconds later, the Panthers Brandon Pirri scored his 18th from Vincent Trocheck to tie the game at two. Vasilevskiy was in the process of getting his stick back after losing it and was out of position.
Jonathan Huberdeau made it 3-2 Panthers as he scored his 12th of the season from Aleksander Barkov and Jaromir Jagr at 8:14. Huberdeau found the puck in a scrum out front and pushed it in.
Shots at this point were 22-17 in favor of the Panthers.
Nikita Kucherov evened the game at three at 1:30 of the third period on a wrap-around from Andrej Sustr and Ondrej Palat. The goal was Kucherov’s 27th of the year. The goal was reviewed to see if the puck hit the netting behind the glass. It was ruled good.
Bolts backstop Andrei Vasilevskiy kept them in the game with big save after big save throughout the third period.
The Lightning regained the lead as Ryan Callahan scored his 22nd goal from Alex Killorn and Steven Stamkos at 17:32. Callahan took a pass behind the net, came around and beat Luongo with a wrist shot for the game winner. It was Callahan’s fourth game winning goal of the season.
Shots in the game were 36-25 in favor of Florida.
Tampa Bay improved to 3-18-2 when trailing after two periods.
With tonight’s win the Lightning have tied the franchise record with 46 wins, also set in 2010-11 (reached Eastern Conference finals) and 2003-04 (won Stanley Cup).
Tampa Bay is within one point of Montreal for the Atlantic Division and Eastern Conference lead.
Cedric Paquette (upper body), Braydon Coburn (lower body) and Nikita Nesterov (healthy) were the scratches.
The Lightning will visit the Nashville Predators Thursday night.
(Feature Photograph/Getty Images)
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