TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - Steven Stamkos and Victor Hedman were too much for the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday.
Stamkos and Hedman combined for four goals and five assists to lead the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 7-6 shootout victory against the Flyers.
Stamkos scored twice and added three assists to set a career high with five points while Hedman had two goals and tied a career high with four points.
League-leading scorer Nikita Kucherov returned from a two-game absence and had three assists.
“When these guys are rolling you just have to keep putting them out there,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “You want them to keep going with that feeling they are having and it paid off for us tonight.”
Brayden Point added a shootout goal and the league-leading Lightning improved to 6-0-1 in the past seven games. Andrei Vasilevskiy finished with 37 saves for his league-leading 38th victory.
Ivan Provorov had a goal and two assists for Philadelphia, which suffered consecutive losses for the first time since a four-game losing streak from Jan. 25 to Feb. 3.
Claude Giroux, Jakub Voracek and Nolan Patrick each finished with a goal and an assist.
Tampa Bay overcame two multi-goal deficits to win for the third time in franchise history, second time against the Flyers.
“Anytime you’re down a couple of goals in different parts of the game, especially in the third and you come back and win it’s emotional,” Stamkos said. “It shows guys care. Guys never gave up.”
The Lightning fell behind 3-1 after the opening period as the Flyers scored twice in a span of 3:37 in the first on goals from Voracek and defenseman Robert Hagg.
Tampa Bay tied it on goals from Hedman and Dan Girardi in the second period, but Philadelphia regained the two-goal advantage on a late second-period goal from Jori Lehtera and early third-period goal from Provorov.
“We know we didn’t play well a couple of nights ago,” Flyers coach Dave Hakstol said. “It’s not just about losses it’s about the overall performance. That wasn’t us the other night and we knew we had to raise our level from where it was the other night. I thought our guys did that.”
But the Lightning raised their level as well with three consecutive third-period goals, starting with J.T. Miller’s goal at 4:23 for his first since being acquired from the New York Rangers on Monday. Stamkos converted a 2-on-1 chance with Kucherov to tie the game at 7:38 and Hedman gave the Lightning a 6-5 lead at 10:03.
“The resiliency was really there tonight and obviously really happy with the way we came back,” Hedman said.
Giroux tied the game with 2:53 left in regulation.
“It was a pretty fun game to play,” he said. “They have a lot of talent, they have a lot of players that can make a difference. You give them chances to score and they will. But we did a good job of keeping our composure.”
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. . Lightning C Yanni Gourde became the fourth rookie in franchise history to record 50 points in a season, joining Brad Richards, Tyler Johnson and Ondrej Palat. … Tampa Bay played its fifth consecutive game requiring overtime or a shootout for the first time in franchise history. … Lightning G Andrei Vasilevskiy earned his 38th victory, second most in a season in franchise history.
UP NEXT
Lightning: vs Florida at home on Tuesday
Flyers: at Florida on Sunday
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