Brian Boyle scored the game winner, Ben Bishop made 31 saves and the Lightning defense played with some edge to help the Tampa Bay Lightning defeat the Los Angeles Kings 2-1 in a must win situation.
Tyler Johnson also scored for the Lighting (21-20-4), his 13th of the season. Kyle Clifford scored and Peter Budaj made 27 saves for the Kings (22-18-4).
Goalie Ben Bishop was outstanding in net stopping 31 of 32 shots to earn his second win since returning from injury.
Luke Witkowski and Kyle Clifford dropped the gloves at center ice less than two minutes into the game setting the tone for this one.
The Kings Clifford opened the scoring at 8:33 with his third goal unassisted. Clifford stole the puck from Ben Bishop behind the net and beat him to the front to make it 1-0 Kings.
[protected-iframe id=”9675edbd02ddabb3f45e4edf53e05a06-114320562-46289989″ info=”https://www.nhl.com/video/embed/cliffords-quick-wraparound-goal/t-283285850/c-48437803?autostart=false” width=”540″ height=”360″]Tyler Johnson scored his 13th at 14:33, assisted by Jonathan Drouin (16) and Luke Witkowski (2). Drouin somehow saw and found Johnson on the back post. With that assist, Jonathan Drouin extended his point streak to five games (2 goals, 4 assists), setting a new career high.
[protected-iframe id=”73f334fb940e22173905202465487a21-114320562-46289989″ info=”https://www.nhl.com/video/embed/johnson-buries-drouins-nice-dish/t-283285850/c-48439003?autostart=false” width=”540″ height=”360″]Shots for the period were 13-12 Bolts.
The second period saw the Lightning take a 2-1 lead on Brian Boyle‘s 11th, the game winner, at 18:29. The goal was assisted by Valtteri Filppula (22) and Nikita Kucherov (24).
[protected-iframe id=”d8e7e3898e457f66a1256aa8ff5815f2-114320562-46289989″ info=”https://www.nhl.com/video/embed/boyles-chip-shot-banks-in/t-283285850/c-48442203?autostart=false” width=”540″ height=”360″]Filppula’s 2-on-1 with Kucherov was denied initially by Peter Budaj but Boyle was able to jam it in.
Filppula now has an assist in four-straight games
Shots were 24-21 Lightning at this point.
The Lightning battled and battled and won at the Staples Center for the first time since 2009. They played with the aggressiveness of a team facing elimination and Ben Bishop stood tall as did the defense, playing without all-star Victor Hedman who became ill just prior to the game.
Tampa Bay won for just the second time this season when scoring less than three goals, improving to 2-16-3 when doing so.
The Lightning now have 46 points, only two behind the playoff cutoff.
Coach Jon Cooper said he didn’t know if Hedman will play tomorrow. He wasn’t feeling good at all today.
[protected-iframe id=”0c6f4c7687cca9ef8a54f639516dfb9e-114320562-46289989″ info=”hash” class=”twitter-video”] [protected-iframe id=”392b73c455454b2ee6bfaabaa40b4786-114320562-46289989″ info=”hash” class=”twitter-video”] [protected-iframe id=”a657c24a217b3acf338cb619db9ab13d-114320562-46289989″ info=”hash” class=”twitter-video”] [protected-iframe id=”0ebe747d5df4d0e8a4f1eb79627f8ca2-114320562-46289989″ info=”hash” class=”twitter-video”] [protected-iframe id=”7f46e06905de1e0dcc43aad36d82a6db-114320562-46289989″ info=”https://www.nhl.com/video/embed/recap-tbl-2-lak-1/t-277753022/c-48448203?autostart=false” width=”540″ height=”360″]It doesn’t get any easier as Tampa Bay will travel to Anaheim to take on the Ducks tomorrow at 10:00 PM.
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