Alex Killorn, Victor Hedman help Lightning rally in third period to beat Stars
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- The Dallas Stars didn't take advantage of Tyler Seguin's quick return from an injury.
Alex Killorn and Victor Hedman scored early third-period goals, and the Tampa Bay Lightning rallied to beat the Stars 5-4 on Saturday night.
Seguin scored two goals in his return after missing 10 games due to a sprained right knee. He was hurt on a hit by Florida defenseman Dmitry Kulikov on Feb. 13 and was first expected to miss four-to-six weeks.
"It felt more comfortable as the game went on," Seguin said. "Ten games is a long time in this league, or feels like a long time."
Dallas has lost eight times (21-3-5) when leading going into the third period.
"We give away wins and we did it again," Seguin said. "It's on all of us. Can't make excuses for it."
After Killorn scored from the low slot at 3:40, Hedman gave Tampa Bay a 4-3 lead 1:51 later. It was just the second time this season the Lightning have won when trailing after two periods (2-18-2).
"Once you put a few shifts together you can start feeling the momentum shift," Killorn said.
Anton Stralman, Nikita Kucherov and Brian Boyle had the other Lightning goals. Ondrej Palat had three assists to help Tampa Bay set a franchise record with its 26th home win.
"It's pretty cool," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said.
Vernon Fiddler also scored twice for Dallas.
Dallas took its first lead at 3-2 on Fiddler's redirection of Alex Goligoski's shot with 8:57 to go in the second.
John Klingberg stole the puck and then extended his assist streak to four games by setting up Seguin's second goal and 31st of the season. His shot from the slot pulled the Stars even at 2 at 3:52 of the second.
Stralman opened the scoring on a long-range, power-play shot 12:59 into the game.
Seguin tied it 1-1 when he beat Andrei Vasilevskiy with a drive from the left circle during a power play at 14:24 of the first.
Kucherov made it 2-1 by lifting a low left-circle shot over Jhonas Enroth with 4:08 left in the first.
The teams traded goals in the game's final minute during a Dallas power play. Boyle scored into an empty net, before Fiddler notched his second of the game.
"We put a lot of effort into that game," Dallas coach Lindy Ruff said. "We knew they were going to generate some opportunities. We generated our fair share, too. Both team's speed created turnovers. They finished on a couple of ours and we had the point-blank opportunities and didn't finish."
NOTES: Vasilevskiy made 31 saves. Enroth finished with 23. ... The Stars have been outscored 83-56 in the third period. Tampa Bay has outscored opponents 86-55 during the third. ... Klingberg left with a lower-body injury and is day to day. "Hopefully it's not too serious," Ruff said. ... Lightning star Steven Stamkos made a pair of nifty stick-handling moves and drew a penalty before Enroth stopped his backhand shot 5 minutes into the game. ... Dallas C Jason Spezza had an assist, giving him 30 assists and 50 points in 38 games against Tampa Bay.
