Anton Stralman, Nikita Kucherov, Alex Killorn, Victor Hedman and Brian Boyle scored and Ondrej Palat had a career high three assists as the Tampa Bay Lightning rallied to beat the Dallas Stars 5-4 tonight at Amalie Arena. It was the Bolts’ 26th win at home, setting a franchise record.
Coach Jon Cooper on the Amalie Arena crowd, “It’s an energetic building, definitely one of the most energetic buildings in the league and it’s worked for us.”
Rookie goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 31 of 35 shots including 14 in the third period to preserve the win..
Cooper said after the game, “When we needed the saves, he made them. That’s the sign of a good goaltender. You’ve got to win the game.”
Alex Killorn added, “I think Vasilevskiy played phenomenal for us tonight. We hung him out to dry on a couple of those goals, but he stood strong.”
Anton Stralman opened the scoring on a power-play goal, his sixth at 12:59 of the first period.
Tyler Seguin tied it at one when he beat Andrei Vasilevskiy from the left circle during a power play at 14:24. It was Seguin’s 30th of the year.
Nikita Kucherov made it 2-1 when he took a pass from Ondrej Palat and deposited it over Jhonas Enroth shoulder, short side at 15:52 of the first.
John Klingberg stole the puck setting up Seguin’s second goal and 31st of the season. His shot from the slot pulled the Stars even at two at 3:52 of the second period.
Dallas took the lead for the first time at 3-2 as Vernon Fiddler redirected an Alex Goligoski shot past Vasilevskiy with 8:57 to go in the second period.
Killorn scored from the slot at 3:40 to tie the game and Hedman gave the Lightning a 4-3 lead less than two minutes later.
The teams each scored in the last minute of the game during a Stars power play. Brian Boyle scored into an empty net for the game winner, before Fiddler tallied his second of the game with just three seconds left.
It was just the second time this season the Lightning have won when trailing after two periods (2-18-2).
Anton Stralman set a career high in goals for a season with six.
The Lightning have outscored opponents 85-54 in the third period this season.
Tampa Bay is the only team in the NHL with four skaters with 50 or more points.
Nikita Nesterov (healthy), J.T. Brown (upper body) and Matt Carle (abdominal surgery) were the scratches.
The Lightning will visit the Montreal Canadiens Tuesday night.
(Feature Photograph/Getty Images)
Follow me on Twitter @LightningShout and please “like” LightningShout on Facebook. You can email us at [email protected].
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
