Flyers' Furious Rally Falls Short As Lightning Hold On To Secure 2nd 10-Game Winning Streak Of Season
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 30 shots and the Tampa Bay Lightning set a franchise record for consecutive home wins in a 5-3 victory against the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday. Alex Killorn, Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point, Cedric Paquette and Carter Verhaeghe scored for Tampa Bay, which won its 11th game in a row on home ice.
The Lightning also won their 10th consecutive game overall to become the third team in NHL history to have two separate winning streaks of at least 10 games in the same season. The 1929-30 and 1970-71 Boston Bruins are the only other teams with multiple winning streaks of 10 or more games in the same season.
Vasilevskiy improved to 19-0-2 in his past 21 starts.
Ivan Provorov, Claude Giroux and James van Riemsdyk scored for the Flyers and Carter Hart stopped 19 shots.
Killorn put Tampa Bay in front early when his centering pass from the right circle hit the skate of Philadelphia defenseman Ivan Provorov. The puck bounced right back to Killorn, who banked a shot off the shoulder of Hart and in at 3:17 for his 22nd of the season.
Paquette made it 2-0 at 14:55, taking a pass in the slot from Tyler Johnson out of the corner and putting a snap shot past Hart for his sixth of the season and second in two games.
Verhaeghe's eighth of the season, off a 3-on-2 rush feed from Victor Hedman, put the Lightning up 3-0 at 2:35 of the second period.
Provorov put Philadelphia on the board with a power-play goal, blasting a slap shot from just inside the blue line past Vasilevskiy at 8:57.
Sean Couturier had a shorthanded breakaway chance at 1:51 of the third period that Vasilevskiy turned aside. The Flyers then had a 2-on-0 chance at 11:02, but Travis Konecny flubbed a return pass and the puck rolled off his stick and trickled into the corner.
Point made it 4-1 with a hard wrist shot to the far post at 12:34.
The Flyers struck twice in the span of 43 seconds late in the third to make it a one-goal game. Van Riemsdyk scored on a power play at 15:31 and Giroux made it 4-3 off a rebound at 16:14 with an extra attacker on the ice.
Kucherov secured the victory with an empty-net goal with 21.6 seconds left.
NOTES: Tampa Bay C Steven Stamkos returned after missing three games with a lower-body injury. … Lightning RW Kucherov and C Anthony Cirelli each returned after missing one game due to injury. … Philadelphia reassigned D Mark Friedman to Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League. … Flyers C Claude Giroux tied Bobby Clarke's franchise record for most power-play assists (234). … Point extended his scoring streak to 10 games.
UP NEXT
Lightning: At Colorado Avalanche on Monday.
Flyers: Host Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday.
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