Flyers Lose To Lightning, 3-1
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Steven Stamkos and Tyler Johnson scored second-period goals to lead the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 3-1 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday night.
Valtteri Filppula added an empty-netter and Ryan Callahan had a pair of assists for the Lightning (20-10-3), who won for the second time in six games. Tampa Bay began the night tied with Detroit atop the Atlantic Division.
Andrei Vasilevskiy, the 19th overall pick in the 2012 draft, made 23 saves to win his NHL debut.
Wayne Simmonds scored for Philadelphia (11-14-5), which entered 3-0-2 in its last five but lost its sixth straight to Tampa Bay. The Flyers are 2-13-1 against the Lightning since the 2010-11 season.
Stamkos tied the score 1:50 into the second period when he fired a wrist shot from the slot high over Steve Mason's blocker side. It was the 18th goal of the season for Stamkos, who entered tied for third in the league but had just one goal in his previous five games.
Johnson put the Lightning in front when he scored on a rebound with 13:26 left in the period.
Simmonds gave the Flyers a 1-0 lead on a power-play goal with 40.4 seconds left in the first period when he deflected Mark Streit's slap shot past Vasilevskiy. It was the sixth goal in the last six games for Simmonds.
Philadelphia defenseman Nick Schultz saved a sure goal when he sprawled in the crease to deny Jonathan Drouin with 7:15 left in the first after Mason had been drawn off his line.
Vasilevskiy kept Tampa Bay ahead with a point-blank stop of Michael Raffl's follow attempt with 6½ minutes remaining.
Vasilevskiy started in place of Ben Bishop, who left after the first period of Monday's 4-2 loss at Pittsburgh with a lower-body injury. Backup goalie Evgeni Nabokov played the final two periods against the Penguins. Vasilevskiy was selected the AHL player of the week Monday after going 2-0 with a 0.50 goals-against average last week for Syracuse.
Mason made 20 saves for Philadelphia.
Flyers right wing Claude Giroux, who entered tied for the NHL lead in assists, got his 27th of the season.
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