Two of the more disappointing teams in the NHL this season, the Tampa Bay Lightning in the east and Anaheim Ducks in the west hooked up Wednesday night in a match to see who would get out of their own way.
In the end, the Lightning used goals from Jonathan Drouin and Jonathan Marchessault to edge the Ducks, 2-1.
The win put Tamp a game over .500 while the Ducks fell to three games under the mediocrity line. 
“We didn’t really give too much up in the first period, but they came at us hard in the second period and we weathered that storm,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “You need your goaltender to be your best player. And when he is, usually good things can happen and that’s what happened tonight.”
Ben Bishop made 32 saves and was bailed out by the pipes with 11 seconds left in regulation when Cam Fowler rang one off the post.
“It seems to be one of those times for us right now,” Fowler said. “Some nights, maybe the puck that hits the post will go in and will turn the tides the other way. This wasn’t one of those nights.”
Corey Perry scored his ninth of the year to tie things up at one all in the second, just 1:40 after the Bolts had taken the lead.
“If you’re looking for a territorial edge, I thought we outplayed them,” Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau said. “But in the end, we have to come up with a win. It seems to be eluding us on a regular basis. We can talk about how good we’re playing against good teams, and doing the right things, but the two points are most necessary at this point.”
John Gibson took the loss on 20 saves; Frederik Andersen seems to have recovered from the flu and may start soon.
“I don’t know, we’ll wait and see,” Boudreau said. “[Gibson] is playing pretty well right now.”
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