In Tampa, the Lightning got third period goals from Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov to turn a 2-2 tie with the Minnesota Wild into a 4-2 win on Tuesday night.
Tampa Bay improved to 30-15-1.
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 33 saves in the Lightning win, it was his 250th career NHL victory.
“It was big boy hockey out there tonight,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “It was a fun game to be a part of.”
Minnesota scored twice3 in th4e second period, with Joel Eriksson Ek giving them a 1-0 lead.
But Corey Perry hit for a double in the middle frame for the Lighting, his two goals tied the game twice in the period.
“We played hard, we played gritty,” Minnesota defenseman Jake Middleton said. “The physicality was there, the will in the [defensive] zone was there. We just fell short this time.”
Minnesota dropped to 25-17-4.
“I thought we responded extremely well. We all thought it was a great hockey game,” Wild coach Dean Evason said. “Did we mistake some mistakes? Sure. But did we compete our [butts] off? Yeah.
“Truly, if we play like that every night, we’ll give ourselves a better chance to win than we will to lose.”
Kirill Kaprizov gave the Wild a 2-1 lead off a power play marker, before Perry tied it again.
“I’ve been working on it in practice, taking a lot of shots down in front, and it paid off tonight,” Perry said. “I don’t know if I was trying to get out of the way or what, but it hit my stick and I’ll take it.”
Marc-Andre Fleury made 35 saves in the Wild loss.
“I thought we played pretty good,” Fleury said. “That’s a good team and we hung with them. It’s a tough loss for sure.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.