Tampa Bay Lightning Outlast Flyers 7-6 In Shootout
By ERIK ERLENDSSON, Associated Press
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Steven Stamkos had two goals and three assists for a career-high five points and added a shootout goal and the Tampa Bay Lightning edged the Philadelphia Flyers 7-6 on Saturday.
Brayden Point had the shootout-deciding goal for Tampa Bay, which improved to 6-0-1 in its past seven games.
Victor Hedman had two goals and two assists and tied his career high with four points. Nikita Kucherov returned after missing two games because of an injury and added three assists.
Dan Girardi and J.T. Miller also scored for Tampa Bay. Andrei Vasilevskiy finished with 37 saves, including four in overtime.
Claude Giroux, Nolan Patrick and Jakub Voracek each had a goal and assist for the Flyers. Ivan Provorov had a goal and two assists and Robert Hagg also scored for the Flyers and Petr Mrazek stopped 29 shots.
Hedman cut the Flyers lead to 3-2 at 5:57 of the second period while Girardi tied the game with his fifth of the season at 12:47.
The Flyers answered at 16:15 as Jori Lehtera beat Vasilevskiy through the pads to regain the lead. Provorov scored 1:06 in to the third period to give the Flyers 5-3 lead.
Miller scored his first with the Lightning in his third game since being acquired by the New York Rangers at the trade deadline to cut the lead to 5-4 at 4:23. Hedman put
Tampa Bay in front at 10:03 before Giroux redirected a shot in front to tie the game again at 6-6 at 17:07 of the third.
The teams traded power-play goals midway through the first period with Patrick tipping home Giroux's cross-crease pass at 7:08 before Stamkos scored on a one-timer on Hedman's pass at 8:16.
Philadelphia grabbed the lead late in the opening period as Patrick tipped Braydon Coburn's errant pass that landed right on the tap of Voracek, who pounced on his own rebound at 14:30. Hagg gave the Flyers a two-goal lead with 1:53 left in the period with a wrist shot from the right circle.
NOTES: Flyers RW Wayne Simmonds missed his sixth consecutive game with an upper-body injury. ... Philadelphia captain Claude Giroux moved past Tim Kerr for sixth on the Flyers career scoring list. ... Tampa Bay D Victor Hedman reached the 10-goal mark for the fifth consecutive season.
UP NEXT
Lightning: vs Florida at home on Tuesday
Flyers: at Florida on Sunday
___
For more NHL coverage: https://apnews.com/tag/NHLhockey
(Copyright 2018 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)