LDN - Sports

Lightning strike late to overcome Blues

[December 23, 2016] TAMPA, Fla. -- Tampa Bay overcame a two-goal deficit to win consecutive games for the first time in more than a month.

Alex Killorn scored 5:25 in to the third period as the Lightning scored five unanswered goals to defeat the St. Louis Blues 5-2 at Amalie Arena on Thursday.

Tampa Bay has won two games in a row for the first time since Nov. 17-19 and has points in six of the past nine games

"Ultimately you are judged on wins and losses, but internally when you work your way out of something, it's how you work your way out," Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. "Those guys have worked and we've been on the point side of most of (the past nine games), some of them we haven't, but I just have liked how game has transitioned. We've just been getting better."

Andrei Vasilevskiy, in his first start since an injury to Ben Bishop, finished with 21 saves.

Michael Bournival, called up by Tampa Bay earlier in the day, scored his first goal in 20 months. Brian Boyle scored his fourth in the past five games. Jonathan Drouin finished off a three-point night with a pair of goals in the final two minutes.

Victor Hedman finished with three assists.

Jake Allen stopped 27 shots for St. Louis before leaving with an apparent injury with 1:40 left, though St. Louis head coach Ken Hitchcock said after the game Allen was fine.

Wade Megan scored the first goal of his career in his first NHL game while David Perron picked up his ninth of the season.

After a fairly even opening 15 minutes, the Blues struck twice in less than a minute, taking advantage of two miscues by the Lightning.

Perron picked a Brayden Point saucer pass attempt out of the air deep inside the Tampa Bay zone before deking Vasilevskiy to beat him with a backhander for his ninth of the season at 14:11. An offensive zone turnover by Tampa Bay led St. Louis on a quick counterattack where Megan jumped on a rebound of a Ryan Reaves shot for his first career goal 32 second later to give the Blues a 2-0 lead.

"Obviously not the start that we wanted," Boyle said. "There was plenty said between the first and the second. The good thing is I think we all looked around even before we were told what we needed to improve on by the coaching staff. I think we kind of echoed that prior to that amongst ourselves."

A big part of that was stop trying to skill their way through the game, instead try to work their way through it. That paid off with two deflected goals from the front of the net in the second period.

"They came out hard in the second and third, put pucks to the net, put guys to the net and made it tough for Jake to see the puck," St. Louis defenseman Colton Parayko said.

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Tampa Bay would cut the deficit in half midway through the second period on the second power-play chance of the game. After Tyler Johnson won a faceoff in the offensive zone, Jonathan Drouin collected the puck and quickly found Victor Hedman at the top of the center point position. Hedman let off a quick shot that was tipped by Boyle in front past Allen at 9:48 of the period.

The Lightning pulled even late in the second period on a sold shift from the fourth line. With the puck down low, J.T. Brown circled the back of the net to find Jason Garrison at the left point. Garrison put a wrist shot toward the net that was deflected by Bournival at 17:27 for his first NHL goal since Feb. 24, 2015, as a member of the Montreal Canadiens. That goal also came against the Blues.

"For sure it was a relief," Bournival said. "It's always fun to score."

St. Louis was held to just four shots on goal in the middle period and rarely tested Vasilevskiy the rest of the game

"After that second goal, they took the game over," St. Louis head coach Ken Hitchcock said. "They won the board battles, they had heavier sticks, they took it over. We were not able to create anything, we were not able to win any of the battles to do it. ... The game is 60 minutes, you have to play 60 minutes and we didn't."

NOTES: The Blues placed top C Paul Stastny on seven-day injured reserve. ... St. Louis recalled C Wade Megan from the Chicago Wolves of the American Hockey League. ... The Lightning recalled LW Michael Bournival from Syracuse of the AHL on Thursday on an emergency basis. ... Tampa Bay C Vladislav Namestnikov was scratched due to illness. ... LW Ondrej Palat missed his third consecutive game with an undisclosed injury. He took part in Thursday's morning skate, but his availability for Friday's game at Washington was unknown. ... The Blues scratched RW Nail Yakupov, RW Ty Rattie and D Carl Gunnarsson. ... With G Ben Bishop out 3-4 weeks for Tampa Bay, Kristers Gudlevskis was called up from Syracuse. ... Lightning C Cedric Paquette was scratched, though he took part in warmups after missing the morning skate. ... Tampa Bay has scored a power play goal in six consecutive games, the longest such streak since Jan. 20 -- Feb. 2, 2013. ... Lightning LW Jonathan Drouin has points in four consecutive games.

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