TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - The Tampa Bay Lightning are starting to have success at home during a key time, while the St. Louis Blues had another road defeat and lost a goalie, too.
Alex Killorn scored a go-ahead goal early in the third period, Jonathan Drouin added two late goals and the Lightning rallied from a two-goal deficit to beat the Blues 5-2 on Thursday night.
“I think the one thing that was impressive was we’re down two and got five unanswered (goals),” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “I’m really proud of the way we battled back.”
Killorn put Tampa Bay up 3-2 from the high slot 5:25 into the third period to help the Lightning go 2-0 starting a stretch of seven of eight games at home. Drouin made it 4-2 with 1:40 remaining, a play that Blues goalie Jake Allen was hurt on trying to make a save, before adding an empty-netter.
“He’ll be fine,” St. Louis coach Ken Hitchcock said of Allen, who appeared to have a lower-body injury.
Tampa Bay also got goals from Brian Boyle and Michael Bournival. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 21 saves and Victor Hedman had three assists.
The Lightning are without oft-injured goalie Ben Bishop, who could miss a month with an undisclosed lower-body injury. Bishop, a potential free agent after the season, was hurt in the first period of Tuesday’s 4-1 win over Detroit.
David Perron and Wade Megan scored 32 seconds apart in the first period, and Allen stopped 27 shots for the Blues. St. Louis saw a six-game winning streak against Tampa Bay end.
The Blues are 5-10-1 on the road, compared to a home record of 13-2-4.
“We had a great first period,” Hitchcock said. “When they scored their second goal they took the game over. They won the board battles, we weren’t able to create anything. You’ve to play 60 minutes and we didn’t.”
After Boyle redirected Hedman’s shot during a power play midway through the second, Bournival, recalled from Syracuse of the AHL before the game, tied it at 2 with 2:33 left in the period. Boyle has four goals in the last five games, while Hedman has nine assists over the same stretch.
“The way we battled through adversity again, being down two goals is never easy in this league,” Hedman said.
Tampa Bay has allowed the first goal in 21 of 34 games.
Perron stole Brayden Point’s pass through the slot and put a back-hander past Vasilevskiy for his 150th career goal at 14:11 of the first. Megan, making his NHL debut, got his first goal at 14:43.
“Obviously it would have felt better if it came in a win,” Megan said. “But certainly it did feel good.”
NOTES: St. Louis C Paul Stastny sat out with an upper-body injury. … G Kristers Gudlevskis joined the Lightning from Syracuse to back up Vasilevskiy. … C Cedric Paquette (lower body) and C Vladislav Namestnikov (illness) were added to Tampa Bay’s lengthy injured list that includes C Steven Stamkos (knee), RW Ryan Callahan (hip), RW Nikita Kucherov (lower body) and LW Ondrej Palat (undisclosed). … St. Louis D Alex Pietrangelo (illness) played after missing one game.
UP NEXT
Blues: Host Philadelphia on Wednesday night.
Lightning: Play at Washington on Friday night.
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