Thursday, December 27, 2018 07:30 PM (ET)

Lightning blow 3-goal lead, top Flyers in OT

Field Level Media
Dec 27, 2018

After wasting a three-goal lead in the third period, the Tampa Bay Lightning won for the 12th time in 13 games on Alex Killorn's goal 18 seconds into overtime, emerging with a 6-5 victory over the visiting Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday.

Killorn fired the game-winner -- his fifth goal in eight games -- from the top of the right circle after the Lightning snared a turnover in the neutral zone.

Steven Stamkos scored twice and had two assists, Nikita Kucherov posted a goal and three assists, and Brayden Point and Tyler Johnson each registered goals for Tampa Bay.

The Lightning improved to 10-0-0 against the Metropolitan Division and 20-2-0 overall against Eastern Conference foes. Tampa Bay raised its NHL-best home mark to 16-4-0.

Michael Raffl, Claude Giroux, Dale Weise, Robert Hagg and Ivan Provorov scored for the Flyers, who lost for the second time in three games.

Andrei Vasilevskiy made 28 saves for the Lightning while Michal Neuvirth stopped 31 shots for the Flyers.

In the teams' previous meeting, on Nov. 17 at Philadelphia, the Flyers erased a 5-1 Lightning lead in a four-goal third period before eventually losing 6-5 to Tampa Bay in overtime. That game was remarkably similar to Thursday's.

Raffl opened the scoring by deflecting in a long shot at 10:50 for his second goal this season, but Kucherov answered by roofing a one-timer three minutes later to knot the match at 1 and extend his point streak to nine games (19 points). Kucherov has nine points (two goals, seven assists) in his past two games.

Point potted his 22nd goal in a power-play scrum in front of Neuvirth to give the Lightning a 2-1 lead at 19:12 of the first. Yanni Gourde and Stamkos had helpers, and Stamkos' assist was his 340th, moving him into third all-time for Tampa Bay.

Giroux tied it at 2 during a dazzling trio of moves in the second period. He rushed in just left of the slot, slid the puck between his skates, lifted defenseman Ryan McDonagh's stick and slipped in his 13th tally at 4:36.

Stamkos, who has goals in five consecutive games, scored twice in a 2:31 span -- the second on the power play -- to give the Lightning a 4-2 lead. Johnson made it 5-2 when Kucherov's shot bounced off him in the closing seconds of the middle period.

Weise, Hagg and Provorov all scored in the first half of the third period to tie the game at 5.

--Field Level Media

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