Howard Saves 29, But Wings Fall To Lightning, 3-1
MARK DIDTLER, Associated Press
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Alex Killorn scored a tiebreaking goal midway through the third period, Ben Bishop made 30 saves and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Detroit Red Wings 3-1 on Friday night.
Tampa Bay also got goals from Anton Stralman and from Steven Stamkos, who got his 40th this season on late empty-netter. The second-place Lightning hold an eight-point advantage over the Red Wings in the Atlantic Division.
Tomas Tatar scored for the Red Wings, who have lost 6 of 8. Detroit is 9-11-6 in Atlantic Division games.
Killorn put the Lightning ahead 2-1 by beating Jimmy Howard from the low slot off nice passes by Victor Hedman and Jonathan Drouin about halfway through the third.
Tampa Bay has outscored opponents 90-59 during the third period, and is 12-3-3 when the game is tied after two periods.
Stralman opened the scoring with a rebound goal 1:22 into the second after Howard made a save on Hedman's blue line shot.
Tatar stopped an eight-game goal drought to tie it at 1 when he found a loose puck during a power-play scramble around the net at 6:57 of the second.
Bishop stopped six shots by the Red Wings' second-ranked power play, including in-close chances by Erik Cole and Joakim Andersson, early in the first.
Howard turned aside Valtteri Filppula's backhander in the game's first minute. He made a nice save on Nikita Kucherov's right-circle shot during a second-period power play.
NOTES: Tampa Bay has won all three games between the teams this season. ... Red Wings C Pavel Datsyuk missed his second consecutive game due to a lower body injury. ... Tampa Bay LW Ondrej Palat (foot injury) returned after sitting out three games and had two assists. ... The Lightning reassigned F Mike Angelidis to Syracuse of the AHL.
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