Alex Killorn scored the game winner early in the third period, Jonathan Drouin had two late goals and three points as the Tampa Bay Lightning came back from a two-goal deficit to beat the St. Louis Blues 5-2 last night.
Early on in the game, Tampa Bay gave up some prime scoring chances and eventually Brayden Point turned the puck over to David Perron, who beat Andrei Vasilevskiy easily for his ninth of the year, unassisted. Just 32 seconds later Wade Megan scored his first career NHL goal as he pounced on a rebound and beat Vasilevskiy to make it 2-0 Blues. The goal was assisted by Ryan Reaves (4) and Joel Edmundson (7).
[protected-iframe id=”aadbb70750ac06bf1db2e177614d458b-114320562-46289989″ info=”https://www.nhl.com/video/embed/perrons-swift-goal-off-turnover/t-283249436/c-47647203?autostart=false” width=”540″ height=”360″] [protected-iframe id=”ad6f02b8c0ccf8920510174efbb1fcd1-114320562-46289989″ info=”https://www.nhl.com/video/embed/megans-first-career-goal/t-283249436/c-47647403?autostart=false” width=”540″ height=”360″]Blues goalie Jake Allen was outstanding in the first period, stopping all 12 Lightning shots including prime chances by Erik Condra and Nikita Nesterov.
The second period saw Reaves go to the box for interference and on the ensuing power play the Bolts Brian Boyle scored his eighth goal of the season, assisted by Victor Hedman (21) at 9:48. It was Boyle’s fourth goal in eight days. Jonathan Drouin (10) picked up an assist on Boyle’s goal. Hedman has points in five-straight games and Drouin in four straight.
[protected-iframe id=”6055243688f2cecc33bb5204b661e3b1-114320562-46289989″ info=”https://www.nhl.com/video/embed/boyle-tips-in-blast-for-ppg/t-283249436/c-47651503?autostart=false” width=”540″ height=”360″]Tampa Bay tied it up late in the period when the just called up Michael Bournival scored his first of the year, from Jason Garrison (4) and J.T. Brown (2) at 17:27. Bournival tipped a Garrison slapshot from the point by Allen.
Shots at this point were 21-14 in favor of the Bolts.
[protected-iframe id=”8a69d79fc57baad60f07f2e83fd3ff08-114320562-46289989″ info=”https://www.nhl.com/video/embed/bournival-nets-deflection-goal/t-283249436/c-47653203?autostart=false” width=”540″ height=”360″]Alex Killorn beat Jake Allen for the game winner at 5:25 of the third for his 11th of the year, assisted by Anton Stralman (9) and Victor Hedman (22). Hedman has eight assists in his last five games.
[protected-iframe id=”4121c2ef4c15a3139ed97253ec2a7078-114320562-46289989″ info=”https://www.nhl.com/video/embed/killorn-puts-puck-home-in-traffic/t-283249436/c-47655503?autostart=false” width=”540″ height=”360″]Jonathan Drouin scored his ninth goal assisted by Valtteri Filppula (17) and Anton Stralman (10) at 18:20. Drouin then scored and empty netter at 19:29 assisted by Filppula (18) for a three point night.
[protected-iframe id=”a0938a765244976066268ce1607299f2-114320562-46289989″ info=”https://www.nhl.com/video/embed/drouins-fantastic-backhand-goal/t-283249436/c-47657503?autostart=false” width=”540″ height=”360″] [protected-iframe id=”f6c8f8d96aace95121685b29b05445c3-114320562-46289989″ info=”https://www.nhl.com/video/embed/drouin-races-for-empty-net-goal/t-283249436/c-47657803?autostart=false” width=”540″ height=”360″]Tampa Bay beats St. Louis 5-2 to improve to 17-14-3 (37 points) and win consecutive games for first time since November 17-19.
Shots ended 32-23 in favor of the Lightning. The Bolts were 1-2 on the power play and 1-1 on the penalty kill.
The Lightning have scored a power-play goal in six consecutive games, their longest streak for power play goals since the 2012-13 season (1/22-2/2).
Nikita Nesterov looked pretty good at Wing.
[protected-iframe id=”6fca2a536f16b01518609a6a3a6b3f8e-114320562-46289989″ info=”https://www.nhl.com/video/embed/recap-stl-2-tbl-5/t-277753022/c-47665103?autostart=false” width=”540″ height=”360″] [protected-iframe id=”270439ff0c64f673551135858c1041cf-114320562-46289989″ info=”https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/299246458&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ scrolling=”no”] [protected-iframe id=”e3e15983a324a6c24d7a95896fa42e0c-114320562-46289989″ info=”https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/299246472&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ scrolling=”no”] [protected-iframe id=”7c875ef4595ffd64a884f425ec674ff9-114320562-46289989″ info=”https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/299246498&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ scrolling=”no”] [protected-iframe id=”c1deaed64e33e585261a3d5b6ebb4ee0-114320562-46289989″ info=”https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/299246513&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ scrolling=”no”]NOTES: St. Louis C Paul Stastny sat out with an upper-body injury. … G Kristers Gudlevskis joined the Lightning from Syracuse to back up Vasilevskiy. … C Cedric Paquette (lower body) and C Vladislav Namestnikov (illness) were added to Tampa Bay’s lengthy injured list that includes C Steven Stamkos (knee), RW Ryan Callahan (hip), RW Nikita Kucherov (lower body) and LW Ondrej Palat (undisclosed). … St. Louis D Alex Pietrangelo (illness) played after missing one game.
Tampa Bay travels to Washington tomorrow to face the Capitals at 7:00 PM. The Bolts will then have four days off for a Christmas break.
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