Lightning blow big lead, defeat Flyers on Killorn OT goal

TAMPA -- Alex Killorn scored 18 seconds into overtime, and the Tampa Bay Lightning recovered for a 6-5 win against the Philadelphia Flyers at Amalie Arena on Thursday after they blew a three-goal lead in the third period.

Anthony Cirelli forced Claude Giroux into a turnover just outside of the Philadelphia blue line, and then dropped the puck to Killorn, who scored from the top of the right face-off circle to extend Tampa Bay's point streak to 13 (12-0-1).
Steven Stamkos (two goals, two assists) and Nikita Kucherov (goal, three assists) each had four points for the Lightning (29-7-2), who have won four games in a row. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 28 saves.
WATCH: [All Flyers vs. Lightning highlights]

"It's tough to get two points in this league, so we'll take it," Stamkos said. "But this is going to be one of those wins where you feel more disappointed than happy."
Giroux had a goal and an assist, and Dale Weise, Robert Hagg and Ivan Provorov scored in the third period for the Flyers (15-16-5), who lost for the second time in five games. Michal Neuvirth made 31 saves.

"Obviously, it's a huge thing when your players believe that they're never out of a game," Philadelphia coach Scott Gordon said. "For us to be able to put up five goals against a team that only has four losses at home, we're not disappointed to leave here with a point."
Michael Raffl gave the Flyers a 1-0 lead at 10:50 of the first period.
Kucherov tied it 1-1 at 13:56, and Point gave the Lightning a 2-1 lead with a power-play goal at 19:12.
Giroux tied it 2-2 at 4:36 of the second period. He played the puck behind his back and through his legs on the rush, lifted Lightning defenseman Ryan McDonagh's stick with his own while skating past him, and then deked Vasilevskiy. Tampa Bay was assessed a minor penalty for delay of game after coach Jon Cooper's unsuccessful challenge that Philadelphia was offside.

Stamkos gave the Lightning a 3-2 lead at 12:23 and made it 4-2 with a power-play goal at 14:54 of the period. He has 14 goals in December, the most in a month in Tampa Bay history, passing the 13 Kucherov had in October 2017 and Martin St. Louis had in January 2004.
"[Stamkos] has a lot of goals and points in this league," Cooper said. "He can sniff out offensive situations. When he's kind of feeling it, you want to get him the puck because there's a good chance it's going to go in."
Tyler Johnson put the Lightning ahead 5-2 when he scored on a delayed penalty with nine seconds remaining in the period.
Weise made it 5-3 at 1:33 of the third, and Hagg got the Flyers to within 5-4 at 4:21.
Provorov tied it 5-5 with a wrist shot from the left hash marks at 8:38 of the third period after Sean Couturier won a face-off in the right circle.
"Our mentality to stay with it and play until the end is what helped us come back and tie the game," Provorov said. "We had a few solid chances to take the lead but didn't quite finish."

Flyers center Nolan Patrick and Lightning forward J.T. Miller each left the game in the second period with an upper-body injury. Tampa Bay defenseman Mikhail Sergachev went to the locker room with 1:46 remaining in the third period after blocking back-to-back shots by Scott Laughton and Provorov.
The Flyers rallied from down 5-1 in the third period of a 6-5 overtime loss to the Lightning in Philadelphia on Nov. 17.
"[Giving up a three-goal lead] is unacceptable," said Kucherov, who has five goals and 14 assists in a nine-game point streak. "We have to manage the game and play the right way the whole 60 minutes. We have to learn from this."

They said it

"I liked our game. You have to give some credit to them, that's one of the best teams, if not the best team in the League. We had some chances. We knew we had some chances, and we just had to bear down." -- Flyers forward Dale Weise
"We did what we came here to do. Obviously, it wasn't very pretty, but we got the two points. There are plenty of things to learn from." -- Lightning center Brayden Point

Need to know

The Flyers played their 4,000th game (1991-1387-165 with 457 ties). ... Kucherov, who had a goal and four assists in a 6-3 win at the Edmonton Oilers on Dec. 22, is the first Lightning player to have at least four points in consecutive games. His 61 points lead the NHL. ... Tampa Bay has scored at least five goals in four consecutive games. ... Giroux has 16 points (five goals, 11 assists) in the past 13 games. ... Raffl's goal was his second of the season. He has scored in consecutive games after being held without a goal his first 20 games of the season.

What's next

Flyers: At the Florida Panthers on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; FS-F, NBCSP, NHL.TV)
Lightning: Host the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; SN, TVAS, SUN, NHL.TV)