Killorn scores tiebreaker as Lightning defeat Red Wings
The Tampa Bay Lightning came through again in the third period to defeat a potential first-round playoff opponent.
Alex Killorn scored a tiebreaking goal midway through the third period, Ben Bishop made 30 saves and the Lightning beat the Detroit Red Wings 3-1 on Friday night.
"This time of year, against a team that is right in the mix, we expected it to be a tight game," Tampa Bay captain Steven Stamkos said.
Tampa Bay also got goals from Anton Stralman and Stamkos, who got his 40th this season on a late empty-netter.
"We played a solid game and that was icing on the cake," Stamkos said.
The second-place Lightning hold an eight-point advantage over the Red Wings in the Atlantic Division.
"Everyone knows right now this would be the matchup," Detroit captain Henrik Zetterberg said. "It would be a good matchup. Both teams would probably like to play each other. We'll see how it goes down the stretch."
Tomas Tatar scored for the Red Wings, who have lost 6 of 8. Detroit is 9-11-6 in Atlantic Division games.
"I think we showed a lot of good stuff," Tatar said. "This stuff happens."
Tampa Bay has won all three games between the teams this season.
Killorn put the Lightning ahead 2-1 by beating Jimmy Howard from the low slot off nice passes by Victor Hedman and Jonathan Drouin about halfway through the third.
Tampa Bay has outscored opponents 91-59 during the third period, and is 12-3-3 when the game is tied after two periods.
Stralman opened the scoring with a rebound goal 1:22 into the second after Howard made a save on Hedman's blue line shot.
Tatar stopped an eight-game goal drought to tie it at 1 when he found a loose puck during a power-play scramble around the net at 6:57 of the second.
Bishop stopped six shots by the Red Wings' second-ranked power play, including in-close chances by Erik Cole and Joakim Andersson, early in the first.
"Their power play kind of got them rolling," Bishop said. "We got through that and settled down as the game went on."
Howard turned aside Valtteri Filppula's backhander in the game's first minute. He made a nice save on Nikita Kucherov's right-circle shot during a second-period power play.
Howard had 29 saves.
NOTES: Red Wings C Pavel Datsyuk missed his second consecutive game due to a lower body injury. ... Tampa Bay LW Ondrej Palat (foot injury) returned after sitting out three games and had two assists. ... The Lightning reassigned F Mike Angelidis to Syracuse of the AHL. ... Red Wings D Niklas Kronwall was minus-3. ... Hedman had two assists and was plus-3. ... Cole, Stralman, Killorn and Stamkos all had five shots on goal.
