The Backcheck: Lightning end losing streak with win over Flyers

The Tampa Bay Lightning returned home and snapped a five-game losing streak Tuesday night with a 5-2 win over the Philadelphia Flyers.
"We had close to 40 shots tonight," said Lightning head coach Jon Cooper. "A lot of good looks. I think when we're shooting pucks and retrieving and things like that, we had pretty decent O-zone time.
"I think a lot of that was from that execution. That helped us tonight, so hopefully we'll keep doing it moving forward."

Philadelphia opened the scoring at the 5:52 mark of the first when Morgan Frost took a pass from Joel Farabee and fired a wrist shot into the top left corner with a delayed penalty set to be called against Tampa Bay.
But despite recent adversity over the five-game losing streak, the Lightning didn't blink and earned a power-play opportunity just 1:08 later when Farabee was whistled for tripping.
From there, Alex Killorn was able to tie the game 1-1 a mere 1:46 after Frost opened the scoring. With the Bolts power play snapping the puck around, Mikhail Sergachev sent a pass from the point to Nikita Kucherov at the right circle. The All-Star winger quickly fired a slap pass to Killorn, who was waiting at the top of the crease with his stick on the ice for an easy tap-in goal.

Killorn continues to be consistent in the scoring department for Tampa Bay after burying his 18th goal of the year. The Halifax, Nova Scotia, native has scored at least 15 goals in seven consecutive seasons with the Bolts.
As for Kucherov, he remains red hot at AMALIE Arena. His assist extended his home point streak to 22 games, the longest among all NHL skaters this season and the longest in Lightning franchise history. Kucherov's home point streak dates all the way back to November 25 and he has 39 points during the 22-game span with seven goals and 32 assists.
"The big thing for me was when we fell behind 1-0 and then we came back," said Cooper. "The power play was on tonight. The rebound after going down 1-0, that was big for me. The boys took it home after that. I just liked the response."
Entering the second period with 1:39 of a man advantage, the Bolts took immediate advantage with a second power-play goal as Kucherov continued his dominance at home when he took a pass from Sergachev and hammered a one-timer past Carter Hart for his 24th goal and 90th point of the season.
Kucherov has now recorded three 90-point seasons in a Tampa Bay uniform, trailing only Steven Stamkos (5x) and Martin St. Louis (4x) for the most in franchise history.
The Lightning jumped out to a multi-goal lead at the 8:46 mark of the second when the line of Ross Colton, Nick Paul and Tanner Jeannot went to work in the offensive zone.
Following some strong work ethic from all three forwards to maintain possession of the puck down low, Paul sent the puck behind the net for Jeannot, who found Colton dashing towards the crease before he buried his 15th goal of the season.

"It's our second or third game together," said Colton. "I think just through practice and watching video, we're trying to form an identity for whatever line we're going to be.
"Tanner brings a lot of grit and skill and he's heavy on the forecheck. I've played with Paulie the last two years kind of on and off, so I know what he brings. It was nice to gel a little bit tonight."
Just 2:03 after Colton made it 3-1, Killorn grabbed his second goal of the game after a miscue from Hart behind the Flyers net. After the goaltender took a spill near the boards, Brandon Hagel jumped on the puck and got some support from Anthony Cirelli, who sent a pass in front of the net for Killorn to bury his 19th goal of the season.
"I thought we broke the puck out really well," said Killorn when asked about the team's success on Tuesday. "Whenever you can do that, you can get speed up the ice. We were winning a lot more battles than we usually did, and the power play was great."
Brendan Lemieux was able to get the Flyers back within two at the 12:40 mark of the second, but after Tony DeAngelo was assessed a five-minute major penalty for spearing Corey Perry, Kucherov completed his three-point night with another power-play goal to wrap up the 5-2 win.

"The way the last few games have gone, to go down early and then to come back the way we did, that's a positive step for us," said Cooper. "We executed. When we're executing, we're much faster and play faster."
Some of that speed came from the insertion of Mikey Eyssimont to the center position on the fourth line between Pat Maroon and Corey Perry. The newest Lightning forward provided some spark with his skating and was able to get under the skin of the opponent throughout the evening.
The Bolts will look to continue that success on Thursday night with a matchup against the Vegas Golden Knights at AMALIE Arena. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. ET.